


Across the Street

by romanticia



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Big bad Takasugi, Depression, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Gangs, Gender Issues, Gender-Neutral Kyuubei, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Kyuubei, Gintoki/Hijikata - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, Light Angst, M/M, Modern AU, Multi, Non-binary character, OkiKagu - Freeform, Policeman!Hijikata, Policeman!Sougo, Yakuza, basically the entire Gintama cast in a modern au as you can see, because I can't write real angst, cross dressing, dammit i don't know shit about yakuza, doctor!Sarutobi/Sacchan, doctor!Zenzou, harasume, in modern japan which is a mix of american/japanese culture/govt, kiheitai - Freeform, pilot!Mutsu, pilot!Sakamoto, policeman!Kondou, policeman!Yamazaki, so its a mix of american gangs and yakuza, uni student!Otae, yakuza!Bansai, yakuza!Henpeita, yakuza!Matako, yakuza!Takasugi, yamazaki is like young like maybe 18-20 idk, yorozuya - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 18:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3820630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanticia/pseuds/romanticia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU in which Hijikata is angry at the world for taking Mitsuba from him, then a strange silver haired man moves in across the street, bringing a shit storm of strange people, issues and feelings with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Strange Silver Haired Man

 

 

Hijikata scowled.

They just wouldn't leave him alone, those goddamn nosy people. He threw his cellphone onto the floor, not too hard as to break it, he'd already broken three that way, but just to express his anger. He ignored the constant buzzing of it, ignoring all the 'new text' messages that popped up.He peeked over, and when he saw who was texting his and what their texts were composed of, his scowl grew even deeper.

Just because they were childhood friends doesn't mean they can dictate his life. He was fine, he really was.

He was fine living the way he was. He was fine living in his own house, by himself, only going to work, the convenience store and back home. He was fine not seeing people for weeks at a time, and was fine with not eating for a few days. He was fine, really. Why didn't anybody believe him?

"It's self-destructive," Kondou said to him. "You need to socialize, meet some one new and move on from Mitsuba--"

"I'm fine," he had snapped, and walked angrily away.

What do they know? They lost Mitsuba, a good friend and older sister of Sougo. They didn't lose the one they were hopelessly in love with. They didn't lose the only ray of light in their world. They didn't lose their lover, their fiance, their soon to be wife.

They didn't lose what Hijikata lost.

How the hell would they know what he feels like?

He'd thought Sougo, Mitsuba's younger brother who loved her so much, to the point it looked like a serious sister complex, would understand. Her death should have shaken him up just as much if not more, but Sougo was quick to recover. He was his normal self in no time, the same old sadist that always interrupted him and Mitsuba on their dates, and whenever they tried to get some alone time to do _this and that_ , it was if Mitsuba hadn't even died.

And that only made Hijikata all the more angry. The darker part of his mind asked day after day, every time he saw Sougo laughing, why? Why was Sougo walking around like nothing was wrong? Why did Sougo not have nightmares, why didn't he cry and visit her grave continually? Why wasn't he angry at the world which had taken dear, sweet Mitsuba from them?

Mitsuba, with her tinkering gentle laugh that could soften even the darkest of men's hearts, as it had Hijikata's. Her kind smile which made Hijikata relax every time he saw it, her soft giggles which brought a smile to his face. Her kindness, the way she'd help any body any time, and her friendliness, which more than made up for Hijikata's unfriendliness, what with the way she'd befriend everyone in a large room within minutes of entering. Her small delicate hands, soft, smooth, and pale skin, shiny and soft hair, gentle, kind eyes, everything about her.

Hijikata loved her, loved her so much. But the world is a cruel place, and even a love that shone as brilliantly as theirs was quickly devoured by the darkness of the world.

And so Hijikata felt it was okay for him to hate it, it was even right to. Why wouldn't he be full of hatred at the world which took his most loved one right out of his arms?

It was too painful to go outside. He'd see a flower, and be reminded of how Mitsuba wore flowers in her hair sometime, the way she'd beam in happiness when he brought her a lily and blush when he gave her a rose. He'd smell spices, and be reminded of the spicy foods she loved to eat and make, and how he'd never be able to eat them again. The television shows she watched, the shoes she wore, the bag she liked, everything reminded him of her.

It was like the world was mocking him.

Why should he have to go and live in a world like that? He was okay living in his and Mitsuba's home, the house they dreamed of buying in their teenage years and bought after years of effort. Her smell hadn't faded in the halls and closets, it only mixed in with his, a strong smoky smell which was faded by a gentle, refreshing vanilla.

He wanted to be left alone, with the pictures of Mitsuba and him hanging everywhere, her shadow behind every wall, spices and mayo littering the cupboards, it was all that he wanted. All that he needed. He didn't need anything but Mitsuba.

And today was the one day everyone allowed him to do as he pleased, it was Mitsuba's death date.

Two years.

Today, it was two years after she'd died in his arms. The one day everyone let him mourn as he liked, left him to cry and curse and do whatever he wanted, because it was as much her death date as it was their anniversary, and his closest of companions even joined him to do so.

How ironic, that Hijikata propose to her and she die on the same day a year later.

 

 

 

 

Hijikata stared at the wall in front of him blankly.

He'd done it all, he cried till his eyes were bloodshot, swore and yelled and cursed till his throat was hoarse, and hated the world for the last many hours, and now he was done. He was empty, he had nothing. If you took his anger, his hatred and sadness away, he was nothing. Nothing but an empty shell, a vessel of who he used to be.

He tugged at his hair, barely used to how short it was. He'd always had it long, Mitsuba said she'd like to see him with short hair, but he was stubborn, thinking they'd have forever together, and refused to cut it. He cut it the day she died, and had kept it short ever since. Though it grew fast, and he constantly had V shaped bangs on his forehead.

After a few more minutes of just staring there blankly, he heard it, the doorbell.

"Toshi! Open up!" Kondou's friendly voice yelled, though if you knew Kondou you'd know it was fake and that he was obviously upset. There was no remark from Sougo, who would definitely be at Kondou's side, which meant that he was too upset to speak, and that made Hijikata the slightest bit more happy, as misery loves company.

He got up, shielding the sun from his face as it was only mid afternoon, and walked towards the door. Today they'd all talk about her, cry for her, and everyone wouldn't bother him about his life choices, for just today they'd join him in his mourning.

Pausing by the window to take a look outside, what he saw stopped him in his tracks.

White hair, a big head of a shiny white -- no that was silver -- hair, walking in front of the empty house across his.

Hijikata stared a moment longer. Who was that, another person coming to check the house out? He'd had enough of that in the past two weeks, it was annoying how they'd all stare at his house longer than the one they were looking to buy.

His house wasn't that bad, in his opinion. Mitsuba never was really interested in gardening or anything, so Hijikata hadn't paid it much mind. He really should have, as there were dead plants and rotting plants everywhere. He was usually too busy being depressed to clean up the house so the panels on the walls were starting to come off, there was more of the paint off the house than on it and what little was left was chipped, there were more shingles on the lawn than on the roof, any good impressions that people would have of him became pretty much non-existent after seeing his house. And dust was everywhere, you couldn't walk by the house without sneezing.

Yeah. Wasn't that bad.

Anyways, the silver haired man hadn't even glanced at Hijikata's house even for a moment. He couldn't see the man's face from behind, and wondered what he was thinking.

Then he quickly shook his head, shook his thoughts away. Today was a day for Mitsuba. He shouldn't think about outside people who didn't matter.

He walked though the halls, glancing fondly at the picture of Mitsuba and him on a table. Hijikata unlocked the door before opening it. Not bothering with pleasantries, he grunted and turned around, not even bothering to look at the two of them.

"Toshi! How are you?" Kondou's fake happy voice greeted him as he walked away. He didn't bother answering and went into the living room.

He sat in front of the alter, and after a moment in which he heard Kondoy say 'Excuse the intrusion,' Sougo's mumbling the same thing, the sound of the door being locked as well as the sound of their shoes being taken off he heard them walk into the living room.

Kondou and Sougo were quick to sit beside him. Kondou put a few manju on the alter as offerings, and Sougo put some of her favorite wine and chips. Hijikata's offering were already sitting there from before.

He could see out of the corner of his eye Sougo, who's eyes were shadowed by his hair, was beginning to tremble ever so slightly, trying to hold in his tears until after he finished his prayer.

Kondou had a deep look of remorse, and tears were in his eyes though they didn't fall.

Hijikata, all dried up of tears could only sit there and think about her.

They all sat for a long while. Kondou hadn't said anything loud, annoying or stupid to lighten the mood, which was rare for him. Sougo's body had trembled with muffled sobs for a long time, but he was quiet as well.

He sat there, with Mitsuba on his mind with his two closest friends (though he'd never admit that Sougo was his friend) and would have been fine staying like that for a few hundred more hours, but they heard a stomach growling.

Hijikata wasn't sure if it was his or Sougo's, or even Kondou's. It didn't matter, Kondou jumped on this chance to break the silence.

"H-" his voice was throaty and hoarse. He cleared his throat before continuing. "How about I order us some pizza?"

Sougo made a mumble-grunt sound and Hijikata did the same. They both didn't care what they ate, and neither did Kondou, but for the sake of Hijikata who probably hadn't eaten in a very long time, he got up.

He was left the room and it was an awkward silence between Hijikata and Sougo. Usually, at times like this Sougo made some smart ass remark and they'd argue, fight and hit one another until Kondou came back and broke them apart, but peering at him from the corner of his eye, it was clear Sougo wouldn't make a move. He wondered if Sougo was even in this world, or if he was sitting in some dream world of his with Mitsuba, Kondou, and Hijikata's dead body, what with his lifeless eyes and deathly still body and all.

Hijikata didn't feel the need to break the silence, but at the same time he did. However, when he looked back at Mitsuba's altar, with a picture of her smiling face right in front of him, he couldn't bring it in himself to.

Luckily, he didn't have to. The 'ding-dong' of the doorbell startled him and Sougo out of their thoughts.

Kondou's face peered into the living room, a lot cleaner and fresher looking than it was earlier. Water droplets fell off his chin, and the both of them knew he had used ordering a pizza as an excuse to go wash his face and compose himself.

"Toshi, were you expecting anybody? I haven't ordered the pizza yet," Kondou said, sounding confused.

Hijikata cleared his throat, sure his voice would be throaty and gruff if he didn't. "No," he sounded just as confused as Kondou.

Sougo wiped his face, his natural curiosity and short attention span making him temporarily forget about his depression in favor of trying to figure out who would be at the door. "Maybe the neighbour is complaining about the dark aura coming from this house again," he said monotonously, and Hijikata wanted to hit him but that was a valid suggestion.

"I'll go check who it is," Kondou said after hearing the doorbell ring again.

Hijikata and Sougo sat there, Hijikata hoping it be no one and Sougo doing the opposite. They heard Kondou's gorilla-like big feet crossing the hall to the door, and the familiar click of the door being open.

The door opened with a creak that made Hijikata wince. That was bad, he should look into fixing that. He hadn't noticed it before, because Sougo usually snuck in the window and he didn't pay attention to Kondou half the time. "Hello," they heard Kondou's familiar friendly voice say.

"Ah, hey, I just moved in across the street and I was forced--I mean came to introduce myself," they heard a voice say.

The voice wasn't necessarily quiet, but it wasn't loud like Kondou's. It actually reminded Hijikata of Sougo, with its expressionless feeling to it.

"Oh! Pleased to meet you, I'm Kondou Isao, please call me Kondou," it sounded like they were shaking hands, if that sounded like anything. "I'm not the owner of this house and I don't live here, but you'll see a lot of me around most of the time," Kondou's voice had that kind tone that he used to talk to strangers, and Hijikata scowled.

This wasn't the time to make friends with the neighbour! This was time to mourn Mitsuba!

"I'm Sakata Gintoki. Pleased ta meet ya," And taking that familiar, rude tone with Kondou? How dare he be so disrespectful?

It made it even worse that Sougo got up and went to the door as well. Hijikata wanted to yell at him to sit and cry for his dead sister, but he knew that would sound very horrible and insensitive, Sougo was just trying to distract himself from the pain as he did every time Mitsuba was mentioned.

Still it made him angry, so he sat in front of Mitsuba's alter, and tried to think about her but the goddamn neighbour wouldn't shut up!

"This is Okita Sougo, you'll also see lots of him around here," Kondou introduced the young sadist. "Sougo, this is the new neighbour Sakata-san."

"Ah, call me Gintoki. I don' like formalities and such." Another shuffle-ruffle, they must be shaking hands again.

"You're living in the house across the street?" Kondou asked.

"Yeah, moved in today. Honestly, moving is such a pain in the ass, I've got a sore back and I'm only halfway done," Hijikata heard him whining and gritted his teeth. _'We_ _don't care! Go home!'_ was what he wanted to yell while slamming the door in his face, but Kondou would lecture him about not acting like a caveman again.

"We can help you."

Hijikata stiffened. His blood started to boil. How dare that goddamn cocky brat?

"Oi, Toshi, come over here please! We're gonna go help the new neighbour move into his house!" Kondou called for him.

"Ah, would ya? That'd be great, I'm orderin' some pizza, I'll get some for ya all as well."

The neighbour was disturbing them on Misuba's anniversary? He was disrespectful to Kondou? He was bribing them with pizza?

Hijikata hated this new neighbour already, and he hadn't even seen him!

Seething, he reluctantly got up and stormed lightly (didn't want to harm his and Mitsuba's house) to the door, and when Kondou moved to face him, he saw the man at the door, the owner of the lazy, careless sounding rude voice that had interrupted his afternoon.

The first thing he saw was a blinding light. He had to close his eyes and blink a few times before he could see. That shiny silver hair was being illuminated by the sunlight, making it so bright it was hard to look at. The silver haired man from before! He crinkled his nose at it. From far away, he couldn't see how messy, curly, and tangly it was. Only now that he was up close could he see the perm on his head. Ew.

After his eyes focused, he saw the next thing. Red, half-lidded expressionless eyes. ' _Like a dead fish,_ ' he thought.

He took in his so-called neighbour's appearance and frowned. Red lined black shirt, tight black --were those tights?-- pants, knee high black boots, Disheveled white jacket --why was he wearing it on only one shoulder?! Did he think it looked good?! It didn't!-- with big blue swirls on the ends of the sleeves and bottom of it, a black belt around his hips with a thin buckle.

Hijikata knew he wouldn't like this guy.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading :) 
> 
> I just wanted to point out that Gintoki's wearing a coat like Kyuubei, because Idk, this is a japanese setting and all but not really? So instead of wearing a yukata he's wearing a Kyuubeistyle coat, on one shoulder with a belt. Under it he's wearing his usual red lined lack shirt and tight black pants. 
> 
> Yeah. Please continue reading :)


	2. Being Polite to Your Neighbours is Such a Hassle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They interact, meet Gintoki's family, and Hijikata has a good reason not to like the perm headed freak: He's fucking weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating. I don't have the patience to write. I get distracted so easily, and bored as well. 
> 
> Anyways, enjoy.

 

Hijikata stared in disgust.

Gintoki had said that he'd unpacked half of his stuff, but what he should have said that he opened and emptied a bunch of random boxes and threw them and the contents around the place.

Reluctantly, Hijikata had got dressed at Kondou's pleading look, putting on a more suitable button up dark shirt and black jacket over dark jeans rather than his stinky, unwashed-for-a-week pajamas that he'd been wearing (and keeping, they needed to be thrown out) for the last way too long while.

After slipping on some combat boots, assuming the neighbour would have sandles for them to use --which he didn't-- he, Kondou and Sougo followed Gintoki to his place, where he'd opened the door by kicking it and took two steps in to trip over a empty milk carton.

Getting up, Gintoki had kicked it to the side --filthy. Even Hijikata was cleaner than that-- he continued in, kicking his boots off lazily and motioning them in with a wave of his hand as he walked further in.

The three of them looked at each other, and Hijikata was about to say that he knew they shouldn't have come this was an awful mistake, lets go home, but Kondou beat him to it.

"Wow, Toshi, there are so many different people even in a small city like ours!"

Hijikata and Sougo blinked. What? What the heck?

"No two people are the same you know? I love meeting new people! And look at that, he sure drinks a lot of milk!" He gestured to the tons of empty strawberry milk cartons on the ground. "You should drink more milk and inhale less mayo too, Toshi--"

"Shuddap," he snapped, "Mayonnaise is perfect."

"But, Toshi, you--"

"No. Nothing you say will change my mind. Mayonnaise is the most holiest, amazing thing to ever have existed on this planet," he stated stubbornly, crossing his arms and turning to the side.

Kondou laughed, and Hijikata realized that Kondou managed to revert him back to himself from his depression once again, even if it was just for a moment, on Mitsuba's anniversary.

He was about to get all dark and deep and emotional again until he saw a flash of white and all of a sudden there's a polar bear in front of him.

He let out a strangled noise from the back of his throat, falling onto his ass. Sure this Gintoki guy was weird, but who the actual fuck had a polar bear in their house?? 

Hijikata tried to get up, but this weird dog-bear hybrid thing is breathing in his face, panting and drooling all over him, and holy shit what do they feed this thing?? Human souls?? Corpses?? Why does his breath smell so damn _bad_?

"Sadaharu!" they heard someone yell, startling them. The voice sounded a little high pitched and young, and screamed of pre-pubescent girl. Sougo looked ahead eagerly, teenage girls were his target range.

All of a sudden they heard a few thumps and then there was this girl in front of them, smiling brightly.

She had orange hair put up in two buns and the biggest, bluest eyes that he's ever seen. The way her eyes were focused, so big, uncloudly, clear and deep made him think of Sougo, who was looking at the girl intently. She had a piece of some dried food in her mouth, and was wearing a Chinese looking red dress.

"Hello! My name is Kondou Isao, this is Okita Sougo and Hijikata Toshirou. You live with Sakata-san?"

The girl looked at him curiously. "Gin-chan? Uh-huh!" She nodded. "You're our neighbours-aru?"

Aru? Her buns, dress and dialect lead Hijikata and Sougo to wonder if she was Chinese, and they both simultaneously mentally nicknamed her China for convenience's sake.

Kondou nodded kindly to the young girl. She was quite cute, and Hijikata liked kids -- but at a distance. "Yeah, across the street."

"Kagura! Where's the cockroach spray?" They heard Gintoki yell from somewhere inside the house.

"In the fridge!" she yelled back at an crazy high volume, startling the shit out of the three males in the doorway.

Gintoki walked back to his guests. "Ah, Kagura, doncha have any manners? Let them in," he said while gesturing for them to come in.

"Not my fault-aru. That's Shinpachi's job-aru." Shinpachi? There's another? Is it another polar bear?

"Ah, right. When's he coming anyways?"

"He said he wanted to make Anego some rice before he came over-aru." The two of them chatted while the guests familiarize them self with the place.

It was nice Japanese house. Hijikata had never been inside it, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be, despite the garbage littered everywhere. There was hallway going to the right and left of the entrance, and to the right was a living room, and if he stretched his neck Hijikata could see a dining room connected, and where there's a dining room there's a kitchen somewhere nearby. Hijikata guessed the bedrooms must be to the left of the doorway, because he couldn't see any anywhere.

Gintoki sat them down as Kagura went off to get them something to drink. Kondou said not to bother, but Kagura replied saying she wanted to figure out how the kettle works anyways so this was a good time to experiment-aru. He heard a couple crashes and bashes and clangs that startled him so badly his knee his the underside of the table and after a moment she came out holding a steel kettle and asked Gintoki if this was the one, to which he replied that he didn't know, that was Pachi-boy's job. Sougo took it upon himself to confirm that yes, that was the kettle, and she jumped back into the kitchen.

Kondou tried to make some chitchat. "So, Saka -- er, Gintoki-san, what brought you here to this neighborhood?" There was a war cry coming from the kitchen, and Gintoki patiently waited till it was over to speak.

"Ah, there were too many dead squirrels in our walls, the closet got too small for Kagura to sleep in, you know, just a bunch of little things that added up." Hijikata's neighbour stuck a finger into his ear, which was absolutely filthy.

No, Hijikata did not know? What _'bunch of little things'_? Thinking again, he wasn't sure he even wanted to know. How did you have too many dead squirrels in your walls? One dead squirrel was too many for Hijikata. Were they all raised by gorillas?

A moment later Kagura came back with the tea. "Here you go-aru!" she cheered as she poured them some dark red liquid. Hijikata blinked, that was fast, he wondered how he could have made tea in just under a minute, and decided it must not have been brewed well. He lifted the cup -- it wasn't even a tea cup, it was the type of plastic cup you leave in the washroom for your four year old son for when he rinses his mouth after brushing his teeth -- and sniffed. It was a very deep, rich smell, and smelled very sweet. Did she put sugar already? He wouldn't put it past her to just dump a load of sugar into the tea.

Finally, he took a sip, seeing Kondou do the same. He startled, because it was a very. . . peculiar taste. What the hell kind of tea was that?

"What kind of tea is this?" Kondou asked after a few sips.

"Oh, I broke the kettle so I boiled some Gatorade-aru," she smiled innocently. Broke the kettle? How do you break something made of steel? Gintoki spat out the sip in his mouth, the droplets flying all over the table, luckily not on him or Kondou-san or he would have flipped the table, consequences be damned. 

"What the hell? You know I'm watching my sugar intake!" He pointed to a banner in the corner, and Hijikata could read out the words 'Sugar Intake' on it, supposedly as a reminder. "Damn, now I won't be able to have my parfait this weekend!"

Parfait? Was he a teenage girl? Sougo snorted quietly. That was something he expected the red headed girl to say, not the grown-ass man.

"Ah, Gintoki-san, you have diabetes?" Kondou asked, honestly concerned.

"Nah, I'm on the edge of it though," he sighed sadly. "Anyway, if you're done?"

Kondou nodded, rising hastily. Hijikata left his barely touched cup of boiled Gatorade sit at the table, not caring if it would offend them.

"So these boxes here, they all need to be moved to the kitchen. These to the right go to the big bedroom at the end of the other hall, the other two go to the rooms with blue walls or white walls, its written on them." Hijikata looked and saw the boxes were labeled blue or white, though in horrible writing. He wasn't sure if it was Gintoki's or Kagura's.

"There's all these furniture pieces, but I'll take care of them, so if you'd do the boxes, that'd be great." That was a lot of furniture, and the three helpers all simultaneously wondered if he'd be able to do it, given his horrible laziness that was clear to anyone within the first first few minutes of meeting him.

"Are you sure you'll be able to them all by yourself? There's a lot of them and some look pretty heavy," Of course Kondou asked.

"Nah, I'll be fine."

"No really," he insisted. "I could send Toshi to help you."

Hijikata stiffened, about to reject Kondou's proposal avidly but Gintoki beat him to it.

"If I need help I'll ask Kagura to help me."

That was sort of really offensive, Hijikata thought with a scowl. Asking a little girl for help instead of me? He had half a mind to agree to help the perm head just to spite him, but then he heard a tinkle of a bell inside a box but then was suddenly reminded of Mitsuba's tinkering laugh.

That's right, today was Mitsuba's anniversary. He didn't have time to squabble meaninglessly with strangers. Everything else seemed to fade, and Hijikata quickly fell into a routine of picking a box up and carrying it to a room, his mind turned off and he was on autopilot. Everything around him seeming to fade into the distant. He was there, but his mind wasn't. Memories of Mitsuba flashed in front of his eyes, picking flowers, going grocery shopping, the time he confessed to her, the flirting in high school. . .

"Oi." He was snapped out of his thoughts by Gintoki, who was standing there picking his ear with his pinkie -- which was still gross by the way.

"You work crazy fast, man, you work out?" He didn't even realize that all but a few of the boxes were gone.

"What? Um, yeah," he replied a little hesitantly. This man was unstable and Hijikata wasn't particularly keen on talking to him any more than he had to.

"Then, since you aren't doing anything come here and help me move this sofa, Kagura is taking the bed and this doesn't fit through the door easily."

Hijikata had to bite his tongue, because how dare Gintoki talk to him so rudely, like he was his maid or something? 'Since you aren't doing anything' 'come here and help me' that piece of shit. Maybe he could get Sougo to TP his house later, that ass deserved it.

Never the less, he bend down and reached for the other edge of the sofa, maneuvering it through the door with little struggle. Hijikata was surprised at how heavy it was, but when he looked Gintoki didn't look like he was struggling at all. He himself had taken quite a few boxes and had worked up a light sheen of sweat, but even though Gintoki had taken a lot of heavy looking furniture he wasn't sweating. At all.

That raised a few questions. Hijikata was sure that this man would have next to no muscles and a ton of chub, seeing the ridiculous amount of strawberry milk cartons and candy wrappers and whatnot on the floor, but for him not to be looking affected by all that heaving and ho-ing and to-ing and fro-ing, he was super ripped or on some type of steroid. Looking at how his muscles flexed while he held the sofa, Hijikata suspected the latter.

All of a sudden there was a knock on the door and Hijikata paused. Gintoki didn't, however and continued pushing the sofa against the wall, and Hijikata looked between him and the door uncertainly. Did Gintoki not hear it? Or was he deliberately ignoring it? Should he tell him that somebody was at his door?

A moment late the door opened, and Hijikata stiffened. Whoever was knocking had walked right inside. He opened his mouth to warn Gintoki that somebody had just intruded his home, but another voice spoke up before he could.

"Gin-san? Kagura-chan? Where are you?" It was a young male, judging by the voice.

The perm head finally took it upon himself to respond. "Shinpachi, over here," he called out.

There were light footsteps coming towards their direction. "Seriously, Gin-san, you've only been here a few hours and there's garbage everywhere! Anyways, how did you get all the boxes and furniture put away so quickly?" The voice was becoming louder and more clear as he got closer. Finally a teenaged boy stepped into the room, picking up some candy wrappers on his way in. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I was sure that I would be moving the boxes, so it is a nice surprise to see it all done."

The boy, Shinpachi, looked up, and only then realized there was someone else in the room. "Oh, hello there, are you a neighbour?" It was a pleasant surprise to find that he had more manners than the other two.

"Yeah, I live across the street, 'm Hijikata Toshirou. Nice to meet you," he mumbled. The boy didn't seem fazed at his lack of enthusiasm.

"I'm Shimura Shinpachi, pleased to meet you, Hijikata-san. I assume you've been helping out with moving the furniture?" Shinpachi was tolerable, Hijikata decided.

"Yeah, me and two others."

Shinpachi bowed politely. "Thanks for your hard work. You must be tired, please sit down and I'll bring you some refreshments in a moment." The boy quickly picked up the wrappers and put them into a bag before noticing the tea on the table. He sniffed it and frowned. "Gin-san, what is this disgusting smell?"

"Kagura boiled some Gatorade." Gintoki was moving things here and there, looking at the younger boy lazily. Shinpachi jumped a little.

"Honestly, Gin-san! Have you no manners? You know very well how to make tea, why would you serve them this?!" The bespectacled boy sent an apologetic look towards Hijikata. "I'm sorry, he has the social grace of a monkey. I'll brew up some proper tea for you, is black fine?" He was answered by a nod from the raven and a protest of 'it wasn't me, it was Kagura!' from the silverette.

The Megane kid left and Hijikata stared at Gintoki, mildly curious. He figured that the perm head was younger than Kondou who was turning 28, and older than Sougo was almost 19. That would make him in his low to mid twenties, like himself. Unless Gintoki was secretly an old man (He couldn't tell if the silver hair was natural or not) or knocked a girl up at the age of 12, there was no way that Megane boy could have been his kid. And that China girl, she didn't have much physical resemblance to him or Glasses either. How were they related?

Kondou and Sougo took the last of the boxes while Gintoki adjusted the furniture, a look of concentration he never would have expected the silverette to have on his face. After a moment, he took a step back from the desk and nodded, pleased. "There, that's all done." Noticing Hijikata awkwardly standing there, he snorted. "You look like a creep. Sit down." Scowling, Hijikata did as he asked and tentatively sat on the sofa, he wouldn't put it behind this guy to have hidden a whoopee cushion under the seat. When he deemed it safe, he sat and took a look around the room.

Glasses had only picked up the major garbage, but it looked much cleaner and homely than before. Though, that was to be expected, seeing as how there were boxes and pieces of furniture everywhere before.  Now the room looked like a proper sitting room. Gintoki opened the curtains to allow the maximum amount of light in before lying on the sofa opposite him.

Hijikata shifted awkwardly. He was naturally awkward and unsociable, and got a little self conscious during moments like this. Was he expected to say something? Was the way he was sitting strange? Would it look weird if he bounced his leg? His self consciousness during moments like this often led him to become defensive, and take everything the wrong way. Which of course led him to offend and insult others in return to the attacks on himself that he imagined.

It wasn't like he was trying to be unsociable. He just didn't know what to say. He didn't really watch movies, listen to any popular music, no hobbies or talents he could bond with people about. And the things he could talk about (anime and manga, since he was an otaku at heart) he didn't in fear that people would mock or tease him for.

There was only one person with whom he felt fully comfortable with. And she was dead.

Before his thoughts could get any deeper and shit than they already were, Megane came back, carrying a tray. Kondou, Sougo and China were quick to follow, the scent of tea and refreshments pulling them in.

"Ah, Shinpachi, nothing heavy, I ordered some pizza a little bit ago. Don't want to ruin their appetite."

Shinpachi stared at Gintoki curiously. "From who?"

"Ikumatsu."

Shinpachi sighed. "Ikumatsu-san's shop is a ramen shop, they don't make pizza! You probably threw some ridiculous request at her, like a parfait pizza again, didn't you?" he stared at the man accusingly.

Gintoki's eyes shifted away. "Um, no."

"Ikumatsu-san is a working woman! She has no time to listen to lazy scum of the earth like you."

Gintoki pouted, looking absolutely ridiculous. "But her pizzas are good."

Kagura butted in. "Does that mean Zura will be coming over?"

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura," said a new voice at the doorway, startling them all.

Gintoki fell off the sofa. "Zura?! What are you doing?! I ordered the pizzas less than 10 minutes ago! And how did you get in my house?"

"I am always on standby," he said proudly. "And it's not Zura, it's Katsura."

Hijikata was confused as hell, as was Kondou. Sougo just looked amused. "Um, Sakata-san?" Kondou asked tentatively. He, Hijikata and Sougo were officers of the law and if a break in had just occurred in front of them without them noticing or doing anything that wouldn't look good on their record.

Gintoki looked at them. "Ah, right. This is Zura-" he was cut off by an indignant 'it's not Zura, it's Katsura!' from the other but ignored it. "He's an old friend, so don't be alarmed if you see him around doing strange things, like getting drunk on my lawn at 5 in the morning every Tuesday, that's just how he is."

Zura--Katsura?-- cleared his throat. "I'll have you know, Gintoki, that I am a hardworking university student who occasionally has a sip or two during times of great stress. I am not a drunkard like you. I am a mature adult and a law-abiding citizen."

Hijikata took a good look at the intruder. About 5"8 no more than 135 pounds, thin body, black hair and brown eyes. He shook his head a little because he wasn't on duty, no need to spout statistics like this was going on record. He took a closer look, trying to take his policeman goggles off and look at him as a normal person would.

He. . . was attractive. His body was thin, but it was fit and lean, and Hijikata saw faint outlines of muscles through the hoodie he wore. His hair was crazy long, and it looked moderately shiny and soft from where he was sitting, and Hijikata would have mistaken him for a girl if he hadn't seen his face. Hell, he still probably would have even if he had seen this pretty guy's face because he was, well, pretty. Thin lips, smooth skin, high cheekbones, long eyelashes, and deep, swirly eyes, the only thing giving him away was his voice.

Kagura snorted. "Like that's true, Zura." Everyone ignored his protest of that not being his name. "I'm pretty sure your sniffing acid-aru. There's some suspicious powder on your sleeves as well-aru. You're definitely on crack."

Shinpachi chocked on his spit, and Kondou and Hijikata looked mildly alarmed, while Sougo looked amused. "Kagura! Where did you learn that?! That's not something a girl your age should be saying!" The bespectacled boy yelled.

"Gin-chan was--"

"I knew it! Gin-san, how could you?" he cut her off, facing the lazy permhead.

"It's not my fault," he protested. "I was just telling her about how Heroin gives you bad breath and if you have bad breath no one will marry you so you shouldn't--"

"Mommy told me that you might as well take drugs because peer pressure will get you addicted to them anyway," Kagura helpfully added.

At this point, Hijikata was wondering if he had his handcuffs on him because this Gintoki figure was crazy suspicious. Everyone in this house was crazy.

Katsura--that was his name right?-- spoke up. "Gintoki, I'd love to stay and chat but Ikumatsu-dono is quite busy and has asked me to assist her, so I must take my leave. Congratulations on your house, I left a housewarming gift in your bedroom. Oh, and Sakamoto told me to give you his regards and tell you that he'd be visiting you soon."

Gintoki groaned. "Not that air-headed freak!" It kinda worried Hijikata how Gintoki didn't seem fazed that Katsura had invaded his bedroom. "Oi, Zura, don't tell me you gave him my address!"

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura. And no, Mutsu told him. Anyway, I must depart now. I'll be here next Tuesday a 5 AM." And with that he was gone.

Hijikata didn't know what to make of his new neighbours. It had been barely an hour after meeting them and he already had had enough of them. Maybe if he got Sougo to do something. . .

Well he'd love to continue that train of thought but he was a policeman and if something suspicious happened to them and he was found connected to it, he'd be fired on the spot, a downside of being a law enforcer. However, he had connections at work and could get a background search on the suspicious character that was Sakata Gintoki, which was a plus.

He'd do that, someday. A day that wasn't Mitsuba's death anniversary.

SHinpachi brought the pizzas over and Kagura and Shinpachi began bickering while Sougo butted in, and Kondou tried to make more chit chat with Gintoki. Hijikata sat there, wondering why he was focusing on people who didn't matter. It was disrespectful to Mitsuba. He zoned out and ignored everybody, only answering with his standard 'yes' 'no' 'grunt' responses when Kondou tried to involve him in his conversation.

He didn't know how long he had sat there for, mindlessly chewing on two slices of vegetable pizza, he lost track of time quite easily when his thoughts drifted to Mitsuba. But for the second time that day, Gintoki startled him out of his thoughts.

"Oi! i'm talking to you asshole," Gintoki drawled in a very infuriating tone.

Hijikata startled a tiny bit, almost chocking on the pizza, not expecting  to be shaken out of his thoughts. He looked and Gintoki and let out a grunt which was probably something like 'the fuck you want' in some native tribal caveman language in the depths of the Amazon.

"What do you do for a living?"

Hijikata stretched his neck. "Policeman, like them," He gestured to the two he came with. "So if I see your kids drunk or high anywhere, or you're disturbing people I'm putting you in the slammer."

Gintoki chuckles, not taking his threat seriously. "Right. Well I'm a Yorozuya most days of the week, and a lawyer the others."

He stared. Shouldn't it be the other way around? "So you're a lawyer?" That was unexpected.

"No, I'm a Yorozuya. Jack of all trades. Do it all. Whatever you call it. I'm only a lawyer part time."

". . .But you have a law degree?"

"Yep, B.A. in Law, picked it up when I realized just how much Kagura ate."

He continued to stare, because you don't just pick up a law degree. Either Gintoki was crazy smart or did something illegal. He suspected the latter.

"Anyways, I get a lot of jobs as a Yorozuya and if I'm lucky I get a client who needs to go to court so I can charge them double, as a lawyer and as a Yorozuya."

Was that legal? Hijikata wasn't sure.

"But yeah, if you need anything just come over. I'll charge you 6% less since you're a neighbour." Gintoki gave Hijikata a lazy smile.

"Um, I think I'll be good." No thank you, he wanted to say. I never want to see you again.

Sougo turned around from where he was arguing with Kagura and stared at Gintoki. "Danna, is she yours?"

Hijikata wondered in the back of his mind when Sougo began calling Gintoki that, but he was more focused on what Gintoki's answer would be.

"Her?" he pointed at Kagura, who was inhaling a pizza. "No way, you kidding? Like that little demon brat could be mine. Both of them aren't, I just live with her and Shinpachi."

"Why?' Sougo asked, with no respect for people's privacy.

The raven haired man was about to tell Sougo to back off, but Gintoki snorted and stuck a finger in his ear.

"Her dad travels and hunts animals or something, and she followed him here once. She was lost and some guys started ganging up of her. Me and Shinpachi went to help her, but she beat them all up and then beat us up for making a lady like her do all that work. Ungrateful brat." he looked over at her with a touch of fondness. "But she never stops eating. Anyway, point is don't mess with her, she's crazy strong and can take down dozens of men by herself barehanded."

The last line was directed at Sougo, who only seemed more amused and intrigued. "And what about Megane?"

"He and his sister were having some hard times, so I hired him. He lives here half the week and at his sister's the other half."

Hijikata felt like there was more to the story than that, but Sougo was satisfied and didn't pry, even though this was the only time Hijikata wanted him to.

"What kind of work do you do as a Yorozuya?"

Gintoki thought. "Hm, a lot of things I guess, stolen wallets, lost cats, stalkers, the usual. But we do get some odd cases, A rich guy paid us crazy to get some pictures that his ex-girlfriend took, a mother wanted to find her son who changed his name and had plastic surgery, some gang issues, we really do anything."

The 'some gang issues' were kind of alarming but he ignored that and cleared his throat a little. "Sougo, that's enough. Don't pry," he muttered loud enough for him to hear. 

Gintoki let out a huff. "I don't mind." He turned to Sougo. "You're tax robbers, right? Where is your station?"

Sougo was quiet a moment before turning to Hijikata. "Ne, Hijikata-san, where is our station?"

"You little-!" He took a deep breath. "You should probably memorize your work address, stupid. It's about 10 minutes by walk."

Gintoki let out an uncaring hmm, before turning back to Sougo. "Why does it smell of cigarettes in here? It stinks."

Hijikata felt a vein throbbing on his forehead. Sougo better not--

"I don't know, but you're right, it stinks. Wonder where that awful smell could be coming from?" With an exaggerated yet monotonous gasp Sougo looked at Hijikata. "Hijikata-san, it's you!"

He felt the vein throb even harder.

"You should kill yourself, Hijikata-san, because you're going to die of lung cancer anyway." Bitterly, he scoffed. "I would have thought that you would have learned your lesson from Mitsuba."

Oh shit.

Hijikata felt a raging fury build up in his body. He was angry, he was goddamn _angry_. "Shut up!" he yelled, gaining looks from the others. "Shut the hell up, okay? That wasn't my fault! And it wasn't her fault either! Don't you dare say that sort of shit," his voice dropped dangerously low. "I don't care if you're Mitsuba's younger brother. I won't forgive anyone for saying shit about her."

Angrily, he stood up. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kondou trying to calm him down. Kagura looked excited, and Shinpachi looked worried. His eyes flickered to Gintoki, and for a split second they widened, because not only had Gintoki's facial expression not changed at all what so ever during his uncalled for outburst, but he had began reading some childish magazine that Sougo used to read as a child, something like JUMP or THROW or CATCH or some other action, and he had _stuck his finger in his nose._

_Disgusting._

Turning around, he stormed out of the room. He was storming in the hallway, still angry as hell, wondering how deaf that emotionless bastard must be to ignore something like that, when a sudden chill went down his spine. Cautiously, he turned around, but the next thing he knew he was being tackled by something huge, heavy and . . .furry?

 _The polar bear-dog_ , he realized.

The impact of his head hitting the floor caused a sharp pain on the back of his head, and his toes curled. His tailbone was throbbing, and his left ankle hurt like a bitch. His vision became blurry, and he was aware of voices yelling and coming closer, the floor lightly thumping as what he assumed were people ran towards him, and then the dog _sat_ on him.

The moment right before he passed out, he wondered how Gintoki would react to this.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading  
> Sorry about the choppy ending, I couldn't end this chapter (seriously, shut up Gintoki) cuz every time I tried Zura popped up or Sougo butted in and I ended up having to end it by knocking Hijikata out. Sorry.  
> I sorta forgot about this story with the 82408p84628 stress school feeds me. I'm going to a new school 1 1/2 hours away from me by bus so I'm hella sick of buses. And kinda scared, because all my transfers are like 2-3 min away, and I'm paranoid that I'll miss my bus and come home 3 hours later. Also, new school, no friends, yeah. *cries* It's scary! But I guess it's not easy to make friends by glaring at people like I do. 
> 
> Side note: I got my learners license! Suuuuper happy, but my parents refuse to let me drive after *ahem* *shifty eyes* a certain incident in which I may or may not have almost wrecked our garage. Stupid accelerator is right beside the brake, its not my fault that I pushed the wrong one!!! You feel me???
> 
> Sorry for the long authors note.  
> TL;DR: School is scary and so is driving and buses and interacting with people
> 
>  
> 
> Question: I wanted to make Otae a uni student, but I have no clue what she should be studying. Martial arts? idk, maybe but I'm looking for like something else. Otae doesn't fit any of the usuals, teacher, doctors, lawyers, therapist, law enforcers, art students, no drama, theatre or any of that for her, so I don't know what would fit her. So, any ideas what she should be?
> 
> Also, Kagura/Sougo, anyone?


	3. Trying to Understand the Behaviour of Some People is Like Trying to Smell the Colours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feeling, feelings, and really Shinpachi doesn't get enough love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Well school is scary as fuck. But there were like 3 people who were nice to me so I'm happy  
> But yeah, Shinpachi is a lot more innocent and sweet than he was in the anime, I mean he's still the straight man but he just has more purity I guess? Like he isn't as tainted. Still a bit naive and all. Because he has Gintoki and Otae. Bur I wanted to make him a more ordinary teen. Like he seems to be so idk grown up for someone his age in the anime and manga so I kinda wanted him to act his age more I guess. Idk, you'll see what I mean in theis chapter and the upcoming one. But yeah. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

". . .And basically he took a couple hours to wake up, that huge dog of yours must have hit him pretty hard to knock him out for that long. But when he did wake up he swore and cursed at you. He said he'd get you behind bars if it's the last thing he'd do," Sougo finished, grabbing another stick of dango.

Gintoki snorted, grabbing one himself. "Tell him I said good luck with that. Regardless of what people think, I have a clean record." At Sougo's accusing look he continued. "Okay, I might have had a couple warnings but nothing worse than some public disturbances and such, you know?."

"Peeing on the Bakufu's castle is public indecency, Danna. You're lucky they didn't charge you for that."

Gintoki glared at him. "Hey, I was drunk, okay? It's not my fault, they should have kept it cleaner, then I wouldn't have mistaken it for like some run-down building!"

Sougo snorted. "Only you could get past tons of guards and security cameras drunk because you needed to take a piss. Seriously, they could have charged you for trespassing as well. That's an important part of Japan's history, not a public washroom."

Gintoki pouted a little. "Anyway, how are you a police officer at your age? I mean you can't be older than 18. Don't you need to go through training and graduate and shit?"

"I'm actually a trainee, but Kondou-san pulled some strings--he's the head officer at our station--and basically, the story is that I'm working there as work experience while I forge some documents saying I graduated from uni."

Gintoki let out an amused huff. "That isn't as easy as it seems, you know. It would have been easier to just graduate properly." He looked up at the sky. "But that's no fun, isn't it?"

"Is that a confession?" Sougo let out a monotonous gasp. "I knew it. There's no way somebody as lazy as you could be a proper lawyer."

Gintoki smiled. "Surprisingly, I did go to uni. But halfway through getting my degree I went through some. . . things. . . and was on the verge of dropping everything, but my ex-landlord, Otose, got me to finish online. I did graduate, and I do have a legal degree."

Sougo hummed, knowing better than to ask what 'things' he went through. Everybody had their own demons, he knew that well enough.

"And your kids?"

Gintoki finished the stick of dango he was eating before continuing. "Kagura is in middle school, and Shinpachi is in high school. Do you know which schools I should enroll them in? Because I haven't got a chance to see which schools are in the area."

Sougo ate a stick as well, noting that they were almost out. "Kondou-san, Hijikata-san and I don't come from here, so we wouldn't be able to tell you about them, but there is a middle school and high school not far from here. I think it's about a 20 minute walk from your place, and the high school is just a street or two from the middle school."

Gintoki nodded, mentally jotting that down. He intended to give Kagura and Shinpachi some time to settle in, maybe a couple more days, before sending them to school. "Do you get issues from them as police officers? A lot of vandalism or crime or anything?"

Sougo thought about it for a moment. "No, not in particular. They are both pretty average schools, and I haven't seen a lot of delinquents or anything, they seem pretty safe. The last case I remember was a window being broken by a baseball and knocking someone out at the middle school, and that was about a month ago."

Gintoki relaxed the tiniest bit. "That's good, keep me updated on that, would you?"

"Only if you treat me to another plate."

Letting out a groan, he called for the waitress to bring another plate. "What's with Oogushi-kun?"

Sougo looked up sharply, tense for a moment before relaxing.

"My parents died when I was young and my sister, Okita Mitsuba raised me. Hijikata-san fell in love with her and brought her to the city with him when we --the three of us-- moved here to become police officers. Turns out, she had sensitive lungs and the bad air quality here destroyed them. After a couple years of living here Hijikata-san proposed, and a year later she died of lung cancer. He hasn't been able to move past her." He took a shaky breath. "Yesterday was her anniversary."

Gintoki was quiet, looking away to give Sougo his privacy. They both weren't the type to offer meaningless apologies, so he didn't say anything until Sougo composed himself and grabbed another stick of dango.

"I see, that's why he was so angry yesterday. He had a really foul mood from the start, you know? Like I'd run over his cat or something."

Sougo snickered. "No, he's always like that. He's got this awful resting bitch face. It kinda makes me want to put him out of his misery but all my attempts to get rid of him have failed so far."

Gintoki huffed a laugh. "Man, I wouldn't want to get on your bad side. As a fellow sadist, please be my friend forever."

Sougo thought about it. "Only if you buy me dango."

Gintoki let out a half amused and half pained noise. "Damn, why is the cost of friendship so high? How about this, you give me information an if its worth it I'll buy you dango. And I'll do the same."

The young sadist snorted. "And what information could I need from you?"

Gintoki let out a sharp grin. "Don't think I didn't notice how you looked at Kagura. She's still too young for you right now, but maybe in the future. . ."

Sougo jumped a little, eyes widening in shock for a split second before he managed to pull his blank mask back on. He took another glance at Gintoki's sharp stare, and looked away. He knew better than to disagree.

"Fine," he said, internally cursing that Gintoki had leverage over him before he did. He made a mental note not to mess with the perm haired man, he was dangerous. If his split second looks that had gone unnoticed by Kondou, Hijikata, Shinpachi, and even Kagura herself, had been noticed and scrutinized by Gintoki, he was a little afraid.

Gintoki smiled, before stretching his arms up. "Well, Kagura wanted new decorations for her room, so I'm gonna go check the nearest 100-yen shop. I'll see you around," and with a wave he was off.

Only when Gintoki was out of sight did Sougo realize that Gintoki left him to pay the bill, distracting him by mentioning Kagura and then walking away. He cursed internally, and swore to get revenge at their next outing. He'd have to keep his guard up around Gintoki. He smiled. It had been a long time since he found somebody like that.

 

 

 

 

Scowling as he rubbed the back of his bed, Hijikata sat up. The back of his head was throbbing and he had an awful headache. Sighing in annoyance, he leaned over to grab the bottle of acetaminophen and swallowed two tablets dry, almost gagging at the awful taste. He laid there a couple more minutes until the throbbing ceased a little, glad the medicine was kicking in.

He kicked his legs over the side and got up, wincing and stumbling as the blood rushed to his head. This was all Gintoki's fault, that asshole. Was having such a huge dog even legal? Was it even a dog? Shouldn't it be put inside a zoo? He made a mental note to ask for their dog-thing's vaccination papers because if that thing got fleas, every animal in the city would be catching those fleas.

He stumbled to the closet, and muffled a groan as his tailbone began hurting as well. After changing his clothes --which was not easy by the way, he was tempted to just quit and go without his pants-- he made his way to the kitchen, where he groaned when he realized he had no food to eat. Sure he had like vegetables and some frozen dinners but he was all out of ready-made food and instant noodles, so he slumped onto the couch in his living room and turned on the TV. Might as well, seeing as how Kondou refused to let him do any work until he was better, and he was on leave for Mitsuba's anniversary anyways.

There was good to watch, so he settled on back-to-back episodes of Border Security, thinking about how obvious it was that the guy was on drugs or wondering what he, another police officer would do in a situation like that. Probably have an aneurysm at the sheer stupidity he was facing. 

It was almost an hour and his stomach was crying for him to feed it. Hijikata lazily wondered if he should get up or not, when he realized that his current behaviour was probably something like his silver-haired neighbour whom he despised. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, he made up his mind to get up and make a salad before the vegetables Kondou brought him went bad.

But of course it was then that the doorbell rang, startling him so bad he fell off the sofa. Hijikata cursed whoever was at the door, probably Sougo. Limping as he made it to the door, he violently yanked it open with a hostile "What the hell do you want, fucker?" but his words were cut off mid-way when he realized that it wasn't Sougo, but the megane kid from across the street at the door.

He paused, momentarily unsure what to do. Shinpachi had been polite and respectful and didn't deserve his angry wrath, but then at the same time he could beat Shinpachi up to send a message to Gintoki.

He decided to let the megane kid in for now. "Uh, hello," he started, awkward as hell.

"Good day, Hijikata-san. I've brought food to apologize for our dog injuring you yesterday." The kid looked up at him with this _look_ in in his eyes, one of innocence and truthfulness and honesty and every pure emotion on the planet and Hijikata knew he couldn't beat him up. Partly because he was a police officer and it was against the law, and partly because it would get his conscience dirty.

Sighing, he held the door open. "Well, uh, come in."

Shinpachi stepped in, took his shoes off by the door, politely said 'pardon the intrusion,' and followed Hijikata into the house.

"Uh, take a seat," he gestured towards the sofa on which he'd been lounging on.

As Shinpachi sat, he wondered if he should make some tea. "Um--"

"Don't worry about tea, Hijikata-san, I should be the one taking care of you. Please have a seat, you must be feeling unwell."

_How could somebody as sweet and polite as this be living with that bastard,_ Hijikata wondered as he sat down across the boy.

There was a bag in Shinpachi's hands, and Shinpachi held it forth. "I've made rice omelets, fried squid, green curry and miso soup. There's also yesterday's pizza, if you prefer that." He set the bag on the table.

Hijikata looked at it. Well, that solved his problem of hunger. "Thanks, but you didn't have to."

The younger boy shook his head. "No, I wanted to. I thought Kagura let Sadaharu outside, so it as partly my fault you were jumped. I'm very sorry, Hijikata-san."

He wanted to protest that he did nothing wrong, it was his employer who should be apologizing, but just murmured that it was no problem.

"How are you? Did you take any medication?"

"Yeah, um, a couple pills. It's not bad, I'm fine." Nobody fussed over him this much, except for Kondou sometimes.

Shinpachi sat there, his eyes wandering around the room. His eyes fell on the picture of Mitsuba at the altar, and respectfully looked away.

Hijikata decided it wouldn't hurt to ask about the boy. "So, uh, how old are you?"

The kid pushed his glasses up his nose. "I've recently turned 16, and I'm in my second year of high school."

16? He looked younger. "And the girl? Um, Kagura?"

"Kagura is 14, she's in her second year of middle school."

The girl looked younger as well. "And um Sakata. . .-san?" He didn't deserve an honorific but it would be rude not to add it on.

"Gin-san is about 24 but he hasn't told us his birthday so I don't know for sure."

24 was young. Younger than Hijikata himself. "And he owns a shop?" He already knew the answer to that but it wouldn't hurt to hear Shinpachi's opinion on it.

Shinpachi contemplated that. "It isn't so much a shop as it is a business. I'm sure he told you we're a Yorozuya, he always takes an opportunity to advertise, but we do jobs for money."

Hijikata noticed how Shinpachi didn't bring up that he was a lawyer. Strange. "And you're his employer?"

The megane kid shook his head, then paused. "Well, sort of. He says that, but I don't really do anything but clean around the house and cook. I also live there most of the time."

This was what Hijikata wanted to hear. He found it strange that Gintoki had those two kids, he didn't seem like father material. Try as he might, he couldn't suppress his curiosity. "Uh, if you don't mind me asking, why?"

The kid smiled a little, and a somewhat distant look in his eyes appeared. "It's kind of a long story, do you mind?"

The longer the better. Hijikata wanted to understand the mystery next door. "No, not at all."

"My mother died when I was young, and my father raised me and my older sister, Tae Shimura. He owned a dojo and taught martial arts there. When I was about 8, he passed away from a heart disease that we didn't have the money to cure. One of the training instructors watched over us until Aneue 16 and was able to get us our own apartment."

Shinpachi sighed sadly. "Our father didn't leave much for us, most of our money went towards his medication so we didn't have much left other than the dojo. Aneue refused to sell the dojo, so we went through some really hard times. She was still in high school, so getting a job wasn't easy for her, but eventually a hostess club employed her. She studied all day, and worked all night. I couldn't do anything at my age, so I took on the household chores.

"Finally, when Aneue graduated from high-school, she decided that she'd go to university on scholarship so she could get a proper job. Aneue's dream was to open the dojo again, but that was impractical for her, so she decided to become a teacher. Times got even tougher, and we barely could eat. Aneue started getting weaker from the stress and work she was doing, and was about to quit university so she could work full-time to feed us and make sure I got the opportunities she never had."

Hijikata noticed the boy's eyes glimmering, and was going to tell him that it was okay, he didn't need to continue, but he continued speaking anyways. "She was heading to the office to submit her form to quit, when she fainted. It was Gin-san who picked her up and took her to the infirmary. He noticed the form in her hands, and when she woke up he asked why she was quitting. Aneue told him why, and Gin-san offered to employ me.

"It was a miracle for us that Gin-san was there. I didn't do anything but clean around and look after him, and though he didn't pay me a lot, it helped us very much. He also let me live there, and he paid for all of my expenses like food and clothing and school. Aneue stopped having to work so many hours and the bills went down a lot. She managed to save enough to take courses that would help her in re-opening the dojo like martial arts and muscle therapy. Gin-san doesn't think that I know, but he opened a savings account for me, and puts a portion of my pay into it for my post-secondary education.

"Gin-san is lazy, selfish and rude, he doesn't have any manners and has the worst attitude I've ever seen. If you leave him, he'll never stop drinking and spends more money than he has on gambling. He doesn't clean and do any chores and his house is usually a mess, and lives off instant ramen and takeout. He won't bathe for weeks and never washes his sheets. But he saved me and I owe a huge debt to him."

Shinpachi stared Hijikata in the eye. "I have no doubt that Gin-san will give you much trouble in the future, he'll probably be the worst neighbour you can imagine. But please, give him a chance. Everybody is so quick to judge him, they don't see how much of a good person he really is.

"So my point is, please give him a chance, okay? I know your first meeting didn't go too well," he winced looking at Hijikata's head where a bump still sat, "but Gin-san isn't a bad person."

Hijikata sat there, mind reeling from the amount of information he just took in. The kid wasn't lying, that was for sure, but it was still so hard to believe that Gintoki, that lazy, rude asshole who he met yesterday saved a this kid and his sister. He had asked in hopes of understanding that man better, but instead he got more questions.

But Shinpachi's pleading look was something he couldn't refuse easily without feeling guilty. "I'll try," he muttered. "But I can't guarantee I'll like him."

The megane boy relaxed, leaning back into the sofa. "No, that's all I ask for. Thank you, Hijikata-san."

He coughed awkwardly. Shinpachi seemed to realize the awkwardness in the air and took his leave. "I'll see you soon, Hijikata-san, have a good day. I hope you get well soon, and if you need anything, just come over, we'll help you." At Hijikata's doubting look he hastily added "Free of charge I mean."

After sending the kid off with an awkward bye, he sat back down on his sofa and took a look at the food. It luckily came with disposable plates and utensils so turned the TV back on and continued watching Border Security while finishing off the rice omelet. When he took the pizza, he noticed a paper stuck on it. In horrible writing, it said 'Gin-san's, don't you dare touch it or I'll kill you Kagura'. He snorted, shoving half the thing in his mouth.

 

 

 

 

It was three days after Hijikata met Gintoki and he was pleased to say he hadn't seen the perm head again. Sure he had caught a glimpse of him walking out of his house and coming back with grocery bags in hand, but he hadn't interacted with him at all. His head was feeling much better and he was able to go to work.

It wasn't easy leaving his house. He was sure that Gintoki would pop out any minute to bother him so he had watched Gintoki's house very carefully as he tiptoed out. When he heard a slam, he jumped and ran back inside, only to realize that it was the wind blowing a window shut. Feeling stupid and ridiculous, he walked out normally, though broke into a sprint when he saw Gintoki's door opening.

Hiding behind a nearby garbage can, he realized it was trash day and Gintoki was taking out the trash. When Gintoki's back was turned, he sprinted down the street, feeling like the biggest idiot in the world when he crashed into another body.

Cursing as his barely healed tailbone hit he sidewalk, he angrily scowled at the person who crashed into him. It was a girl with long light purple hair, with a beauty mark under her right eye. She wore a sleeveless white dress with a big red belt around her middle. Hijikata flushed a little when he saw how she was sitting with her legs spread, but it faded when he realized that she was wearing tight black shorts that went to the bottom of her thighs. Around her neck was a purple scarf and she wore black boots.

Hijikata also noticed the pair of red glasses on the ground beside her and how she blinked rapidly, looking confused. Her gaze fell to Hijikata, who scowled, awaiting an apology.

The girl blinked at him, and the next thing he knew he was on the ground with her on him. He froze, a red flush creeping up his neck while he tried to find his voice.

"Gin-san! Oh, I missed you! Ah, it was so mean of you not to tell me you were moving! I love it! Please, Gin-san, be mean to me!" she moaned, and Hijikata was sure his face would never return to its original colour after being this red. His mouth opened and closed rapidly, his eyes wide as saucers. Who was this strange girl and why was she molesting him? And by Gin-san, did she mean his silver haired neighbour? Why were her boobs rubbing against his chest like that?

The girl rubbed her face against his neck, wiggling her body against him, and he inhaled sharply. "Ooh Gin-san you smell like cigarettes! What a wonderful, manly scent! Please, get your smell all over me!" Hijikata literally could not get more redder. Or embarrassed. He hadn't even been this embarrassed when Sougo burst into his room while he and Mitsuba were getting it on.

All of a sudden, there was an amused huff behind him. Then the perm head came into his line of vision, and he stared at him, a desperate look in his eyes. _Please help me,_ he tried to convey through his eyes.

Gintoki stared at him, amused for a few more moments before picking up the red glasses on the ground. "Oi, you perverted stalker," he drawled. The girl stopped squirming on him. "That's not Gin-san. Gin-san is right here."

Gintoki lazily waved the glasses in front of her, and she grabbed them. She put them on as she straddled Hijikata's middle, the latter blushing and staring incoherently. When she put the glasses on, she stared at Hijikata.

"You're not Gin-san, you impostor!" _No shit_ , Hijikata wanted to say, but she was still sitting on him, so he couldn't. She turned around. "Gin-san!" And in a second she was latched onto him. While Hijikata stared dumbly at the girl who was shamelessly rubbing her large chest against Gintoki, Gintoki himself didn't look bothered. With one hand, he pushed against her face, trying to push the crazy freak off of him lazily.

"Get off me, you masochistic woman. Where's Zenzou?" Just then a guy with a light brown/dark blonde mop top covering his eyes and goatee came running up to them, stopping in front of Gintoki as he tried to catch his breath. He rested his hands on his knees and bent over, panting as Gintoki stared blankly at him. 

"There you are Sarutobi-san," he managed out between his pants. "I was looking everywhere for you! Don't go running off like that."

The girl, Sarutobi looked at him and frowned. "What do you mean, Zenzou? Of course I'd go see my bae and give him a housewarming present!"

Gintoki looked at her unamused and pushed her towards Zenzou. "Don't want it. Seriously Zenzou, I told you not to tell her my address! At least give me a warning next time."

"But Gin-san, I was going to give you the gift of my body!" she cried out, but the two males ignored her. The flush that was just starting to leave Hijikata's face came back full force after realizing what her words suggested. Indecent things, to say the least.

"Sorry," he stood up straight and grabbed Sarutobi's arm as she tried to cling onto Gintoki again. "But her shift ended and she went to see you, and when she saw your place was empty she started sobbing and crying. The old lady downstairs told me to get rid of her before she did."

Gintoki huffed. "Of course Otose wouldn't want her wailing at 7 in the morning. So? You took pity on her and decided to bring her here?"

Zenzou scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry man, she wouldn't shut up. I tried to blindfold her so she wouldn't know where her house is but she said that Gin-san was the only one who could blindfold her and it would be in the bedroom." That gave Hijikata, who was still sitting on the ground trying to calm his thumping heart mental images he wasn't sure he ever needed in his life.

Gintoki clucked his tongue, annoyed. "Well, I'm going back to sleep. It's too early for this. Get rid of her, would you?" Zenzou nodded and with a wave began dragging the girl away while she let out the noise of an elephant screaming "I'll come back for you Gin-san!"

"Please don't," he muttered to her wailing form.

Hijikata took the opportunity to get off the ground and wipe his back off. More people he never needed in his life. Gintoki finally turned back to him, and Hijikata realized just how ridiculous his pink strawberry pajamas were.

Noticing Hijikata's disgusted look, he let out a slow grin. "Ah, I got these at a yard sale of those frat girls three streets away," he informed Hijikata, who didn't want to know.

"Uh, nice," he muttered. His mayo pajamas were much better.

"Sorry bout that, that was Sarutobi Ayame, or Sacchan, a stalker and crazy. But she's blind as a bat without her glasses, which is why she mistook you for me. Oh, and that was Hattori Zenzou, her childhood friend."

"Um, is she uh, your girlfriend?" she must have been to say such indecent and shameless things like that.

"Nah, she's just a masochistic pervert. Zenzou family owns a School of Medicine, and they are both doctors. Sarutobi was in training when I met her, I thought she was a nurse and I was in the hospital and asked her to get me some stuff. I don't know, she liked the way I ordered her around, and ever since then she's been all over me. Asking me to abuse her and stuff." How Gintoki could say that with a straight face, Hijikata had no clue. His face heated just hearing that.

"Right. Well, um, I have to go to work."

Gintoki yawned. "Cool, I have to go back to sleep. Well, see ya." And with that he was gone. Hijikata watched him cross the road and make his way to his house, and only when Gintoki stopped and turned to look at him did he realize he was staring. With a red face he hurried away to his office.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Also I am Canadian so I use different spellings, don't know if that bothers you but I usually use the u in my words, like:  
> colour instead of color  
> neighbour instead of neighbor  
> behaviour instead of behavior  
> Idk. So yeah, they aren't typos, they are Canadian English. In grade one we leaned it like (u are Canadian so u use a u)
> 
> Sorry for not having much direct Gintoki/Hijikata like interactions as well as OkiKagu. But they are both coming.  
> Plus Yamazaki/Shinpachi. 
> 
> Oh, and do you know what Border Security is? It's a Candian TV program, basically shows the Canadian Border Security dealing with people sneaking drugs into Canada and stuff like that. I've got an addiction to it and a couple days ago watched it for like 4 hours straight. Its interesting. But if you don't know what it is, well thats basically is it. There's an Australian version of it and maybe a US one too, idk. Watch it if you're interested.
> 
> Also, please tell me what you want to see in this fic! I don't care if its more OkiKagu interactions, or more Otae or Zura, I'll try my best to add it in the next chapter, and I can't I'll do it in the one after that! So I'd love to hear your requests :) 
> 
> Wow. That was a hella long authors note. Sorry bout that.
> 
>  
> 
> Question: Otae/Kyuubei or Otae/Kondou? I don't know which I like better


	4. Around the Corner I Have a Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yorozuya kids, Gintoki perving on high schoolers, and Sakamoto's sleazy porn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written when I should have been working on my CompSci projects, but who cares??? I sure as hell don't. What even is school????? What is life????????  
> But yeah, this chapter was inspired by my amazing lack of inspiration to do my homework.  
> Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

Gintoki sighed long and hard. "Like I said, I'm not trying to pick you up. I'm enrolling Shinpachi and Kagura in their schools today, and I thought you'd want to come . . . How many times to I have to tell you that I'm not asking you out on a date? I told you I don't see you like that! . . .What? No! I'm not going to. . . Fine, like hell if I care. Go ahead and bring your rape whistle. But I'm telling you you won't need it! . . . _I'm not interested in your flat chest_. . .What? No I didn't say anything, must have been the wind. Anyways, I'll be waiting, so hurry over."

Gintoki exhaled as he turned his cell phone off. Kagura giggled beside him, and he sent her a dirty look. "It's not funny! Otae was convinced that I was trying to pick her up!" That just caused her to giggle harder. Shinpachi let out a cough noise behind him, and he sent Gintoki his own dirty look.

"You better not have been trying to hit on my sister, Gin-san. She'll beat you up." Gintoki rolled his eyes.

"I'm well aware of that. Well, I'm just going to try to find Kagura's birth certificate, and, um, what other documents did I need? Your last report card? Seriously, why is putting children in school so complicated these days?"

Kagura thought about that. "Probably because of identity theft and stuff-aru. Oh and illegal smuggling of immigrants, and--"

"Yeah, I know, it was a rhetorical question. You've been watching Border Security lately, huh?"

Shinpachi got up. "Gin-san, didn't you have a file under your shoe cabinet reading 'Important: Do Not Touch'?"

"Those are my parfait funds."

"Of course they are," the megane boy muttered, rolling his eyes.

'Ah! Found them!"

"Where?"

"Behind the fridge."

Shinpachi looked at him. "Gin-san, those are kind of really important documents, why are they behind the fridge?"

Gintoki shrugged, before casting a glace at Kagura. She was acting strange. He didn't know what was wrong with her but a look like that wasn't one he wanted to see on her face. "Ne, Kagura, do you have all your school supplies?"

Kagura hesitated. "I don't think so-aru."

Gintoki stared at her blankly. "Where did you put them?"

The blue eyed girl looked away. "I don't remember. Maybe I threw them out-aru."

Yep, definitely suspicious. "Well, you check up on that, would you? If there's anything you need I'll pick it up while Otae and I get you registered."

With a small nod, Kagura dashed to her room. Gintoki watched after her. What was wrong with her? She was upset, that was for sure, but it wasn't like Kagura to be upset about something and not make a big deal out of it, like she did every time Gintoki ate her pizza or forgot to buy her favorite shampoo.

Before he could think of what could be making his little girl sad, the doorbell rang, and Shinpachi eagerly went to it. "Aneue!" he greeted enthusiastically. Gintoki pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind and went to greet his old friend with a neutral expression.

"Hey, you ready?" he greeted, looking for his shoes.

"Ara, Gin-san, what a rude way to greet a lady," she smiled one of her deceivingly innocent smiles. The perm head rolled his eyes.

"What lady? I don't see any lady anywhere, just a gorilla. Anyways, you brought Shinpachi's birth certificate, right? I have a copy but I don't know if they will accept that, they might want the real thing." Otae cheerfully waved a folder at him. 

"Yes, I thought an airhead like you would forget to tell me what to bring so I just brought a couple of his documents."

Gintoki rolled his eyes. "Kagura! Your school supplies?" he called to his girl.

Kagura came. "Um, well, I don't have my calculator, it broke, and I also don't have my dictionary, thesaurus, and coloured pens-aru." She seemed uneasy, and Gintoki's worry for her spiked up a little more.

"Ok, I don't think you'll need them all tomorrow so I'll get them on the weekend. Oh, do you want sparkly pens or?"

"Um, yeah, sparkly pens are great-aru." Even Shinpachi was giving Kagura a strange look, as well as Otae. She dashed back to her room.

Gintoki yawned, and Shinpachi watched him. He set his neutral mask and acted like nothing was wrong, and after a moment of him picking his nose while buckling his boot Shinpachi relaxed a little, because if Gintoki didn't think anything was wrong he would trust that.

Shinpachi set them off and Otae and Gintoki began walking to the school. It was a block or so away that Otae asked. "What was wrong with Kagura-chan? She didn't greet me and her behaviour was strange."

Gintoki sighed. "I don't know, but she's been acting weird for a while now. Maybe she watched a TV show that unsettled her, like the 3D movie about demons we watched a couple months ago."

Otae frowned at him. "You took a young girl to see a movie about demons in 3D?"

"Never mind that," he tried to change the topic. "But do you think it is like puberty?" he winced a little.

Otae huffed a little laugh. "I can't say for sure, but it is about that age for her. Do you think she is embarrassed and doesn't want to tell you she got her period?"

Gintoki cringed. "Even if that was the case, she probably would have came to you for advice, right? But she didn't even talk to you at the door, so I don't think she's. . .yeah. Besides, I don't think she'd be that embarrassed to tell me, maybe Shinpachi but we don't have that kind of barrier between us, I mean she informs me daily on how smooth her shits were and--" he was cut off by Otae whacking him across the head.

"That's disgusting, Gin-san, Kagura is a young female and you should treat her like one."

Gintoki rolled his neck. "Do you think she's nervous?"

Otae looked at him curiously. "What do you mean? Nervous of her new house?"

"No, no, I mean school. She started acting strange when I mentioned that she was going to school tomorrow, I think."

The brunette was quiet a moment. "Kagura isn't a shy person, she isn't the type to get nervous, that's more like Shinpachi. But I guess you're right, that could be so."

They both walked in silence for a bit. "Well, I'll talk to her later, Anyways, um, I just wanted to confirm that when Kagura does, uh, start menstruating," he cringed a little more "that you would be, I don't know, there for her?"

Otae looked at him with disbelief. "Of course, you think I can leave her in your care during a time like that? She doesn't have any other close female friends that are older, does she?"

Gintoki let out a relieved noise. "Good, because teenage girls on their period aren't my area of expertise."

Otae let out an amused noise. "That's more than obvious, Gin-san. Anyways, Shinpachi was having some trouble in his history class, you'll help him with that, won't you?" She let out a threatening grin, making Gintoki take a step away for safety's sake.

"Uh, Zura is studying history and all that crap, so I could get him to tutor Shinpachi," he offered.

Otae nodded, pleased. They fell into their routine of playful banter, which left Gintoki with several light bruises as usual. The high school came up close, and they took a good look at it.

"It doesn't look bad," Gintoki commented. It wasn't the best school out there but it was better than average, the plants were all taken care for, the grass cut, no graffiti anywhere, the paint looked new, no broken windows, it passed the visual examination.

They walked in, and met with the secretary. After filling out a couple forms and receiving a package, Gintoki asked to take a look around, and after familiarizing himself with all of Shinpachi's classes, him and Otae did the same to the middle school and Kagura's classes.

As they were leaving the middle school, the secretary there, who was quite young and sociable, gave them an informal notice that the sister of the president was currently enrolled in the school. They were free to take that as they pleased.

"It's good that that lady gave us a warning, or Kagura might have accidentally offended her," Otae noted. "Make sure you tell Kagura about her, ok?"

"I will, stop looking at me like that! Even I'm not stupid enough to let Kagura insult the president's sister. I don't want to be put in prison for her dumb mistake."

A few streets away, Otae took her leave and made her way to her and Shinpachi's apartment, which was conveniently in between Gintoki's house and the schools. Shinpachi and Kagura could stop by Otae's place before going to his if they felt like it. He thought about getting them cell phones so he'd be aware if they were coming late, and pushed that to the back of his head for later.

When he got to his house, he stopped in the doorway. Kagura was sitting on the sofa with her knees pulled up to her chest and was hugging herself. She had a blanket over her, hiding her face from view. Gintoki let out a little sigh and made his way to her after removing his jacket and boots.

"Kagura, you look like one of the housewives from Ladies 4 after they've been dumped by the boyfriend they've been cheating on their husbands with," he noted. Under the sheet, Kagura didn't move. He let out a quiet exhale and began thinking of what to do to make her feel better.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Shinpachi loitering around in the kitchen, sending them looks every couple of seconds. He looked unsure, and after a couple seconds of checking on the cooked food and washing his hands, he grabbed a broom and began sweeping the floor. It was clear to Gintoki that the boy was just looking for something to do with his hands, because he wasn't properly sweeping, just brushing the floor back and forth in the same spot.

That confirmed his suspicions that his kids were nervous.

He took a seat beside Kagura, throwing an arm around her shoulders and tugging her close to his body. None of the Yorozuya trio were the touchy-feely type, so it was a little awkward for Gintoki to do that, but he didn't care about his own feelings of awkwardness when Kagura leaned into his body seeking his warmth.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice gentler than usual.

It was quiet, except for Shinpachi's redundant strokes of the broom. After a couple of moments, Kagura spoke up.

"Gin-chan I don't want to go to school."

Gintoki's heart clenched the tiniest bit when he heard how quiet, childish and all around scared her voice was. That wasn't Kagura-like at all. Kagura was brave, confident, and careless to an extent. Shinpachi stopped moving behind him.

"And why is that?"

She let out a tiny sniffle. "I don't know anybody-aru. What if I don't make any friends-aru? What if the people are mean to me like before-aru? I don't like school, Gin-chan. I want to stay at home and be a NEET."

He couldn't help but chuckle a little at that last line. "I do to, but being a NEET doesn't pay the bills, unfortunately. Anyways, why are you scared of those people? You didn't know anybody in the country, for god's sake, but you climbed into the bottom of the plane and came here from China. You didn't know the language very well, you didn't know any people or places or anything, really. And sure you got in a little bit of trouble, but I was there, right? Me and Shinpachi were there for you. And we will be now. So don't worry, if nobody at school likes you, I'll just beat them up," he concluded.

Kagura giggled. "I don't think that's what your supposed to say, Gin-chan."

Gintoki scoffed. "Yeah, but you're a special case. Oh, that reminds me," He got up and went to his room, bringing back a box and placing it on the table in front of her. "Zura brought these for our house."

Kagura curiously looked up, and grabbed one. " _'Notice: The soap is not for decoration, please use it'._ What is this Gin-chan?"

Gintoki smiled. "I don't know what you call them, um, signs? I see things like these all over the net, these are for our house, here, look at the others." Shinpachi's curiosity won over and he came to look at them.

" ' _Warning: Trespassers will be handed over to the police. One body part at a time'_." He snorted.

"Look at this one!" Kagura pointed to another in the box. " _'Don't rush me I'm waiting for the last minute'_ , this is perfect for you, Gin-chan! You should put it on your door."

Gintoki snorted. "Look at this, ' _Nice dog, Crazy owner'_ , of course Zura would give us that, he loves Sadaharu. ' _Home is where the dog hair sticks to everything but the dog'_."

" _'Forget the dog, Beware the owner'_ This suits you, Gin-san," Shinpachi laughed. "But seriously why did he send us so many about dogs?" he asked ruffling through ones with pictures of dogs and stuff on them.

"He probably has a lot of these in his dorm about ducks-aru," Kagura guessed. "This says, ' _Caution: Do not disturb unless you have pizza'-aru._ Oh! And this says _'Laundry room: Push for service. If no one answers do it yourself._ "

After a while of laughing at the ones and deciding which one would go to which room and such, Gintoki grabbed one from the bottom of the pile and handed it to Kagura.

" ' _You! Yes, you, the one reading this. You are beautiful, talented, amazing, and simply the best at being you. Never forget that'_. " Kagura looked up at Gintoki, who was smiling softly at her. Shinpachi ruffled around before he grabbed another sign and passed it to her. " ' _Smile, you are beautiful._ ' "

Kagura bit her lip and looked down, before jumping up and pulling both Gintoki and Shinpachi into a hug. Shinpachi flailed for a minute before Gintoki wrapped an arm around him and Kagura and pulled them close.Gintoki let out a fond smile. Zura was as perceptive as always, and he probably just knew that Kagura and Shinpachi would be nervous, which was why he got things like this. He'd have to pay the idiot back somehow.

"School will be fine, you hear me? And if it isn't, you just have to tell me. There are other schools not too far away, and I could deal with the issues myself if I need to. So don't worry. You guys will both be fine."  He directed it at the both of them, and smiled when Shinpachi leaned into him and Kagura buried her face into his chest.

They stayed like that a moment longer before it got a little awkward. "Kagura if you don't stop squeezing me like that I'm going to fart," he warned.

"Gross!" Shinpachi yelped and moved away, laughing a little as Kagura pushed Gintoki to the floor.

"Ruining the moment like that Gin-chan, you're the worst-aru."

He smiled slightly, grabbing the two signs and a couple nails and hammer. He looked around Kagura's room and found a good spot across where her bed was set up the day before, and got to work hammering nails into the wall to hang the signs off. When he was finished, he made his way to Shinpachi's room, grabbing a couple signs with words of encouragement on them and hammering them into the wall.

When he was finished, he turned around and gave his kids a very pleased look. "How is that," he boasted playfully. Shinpachi rolled his eyes, though he had a smile on his face.

"Gin-san, their crooked," he deadpanned. The self-satisfied look slipped off his face as he turned to look at the one's he just hung up, and he noted that they were, in fact, crooked. Of course, he already knew that. He put them up crooked so that every time they see the signs they'd be reminded of him, and his support behind the crooked words of encouragement. It was a mental thing, he learned, relating certain things with conversations or people, and he hoped it would work.

But telling them that wouldn't be fun, so he gave Shinpachi a glare, and muttered about their ungratefulness loud enough for them to hear. Kagura giggled, and Shinpachi couldn't keep the smile off his face at they looked at Gintoki pouting. Gintoki had to hide the smile of his own when he saw how they were noticeably in better moods. Those were the kids he knew and loved.

 

 

 

 

Hijikata stared at Gintoki. What the hell was that perm freak doing, just standing there behind the tree and watching the school? He was just walking on his normal patrol route when he sees Gintoki creeping around and watching the school. What the hell?

Hijikata's eyes widened when he realized that Gintoki could have been a pervert and was trying to look up girl's skirts or something. If that was the case, he'd be able to arrest him, and never see the perm head again!

With that though in mind, he made his way over to the silverette. "Oi, natural perm, what are you doing here? If you're doing anything suspicious I'll have you put in jail for being a pedophile," he called once he was a couple steps away.

Gintoki didn't even look at him, which irritated Hijikata. "Oi, I'm talking to you--!"

"I know, no need to scream and yell," he muttered back. " I'll have you know 'm waiting for it to end, which will happen in about two minutes," he nodded to the school.

Hijikata turned to look at it. "You're girl is in high school?" That wasn't right, the girl was younger than that.

"No, she's down the street. Shinpachi goes here."

The raven paused. If Hijikata had a boy and a girl the ages of Gintoki's kids, he'd choose to pick up the girl from school first, not the boy. Not unless he knew the knew the boy wanted to be picked up, or if something was wrong. Was Shinpachi more scared of school than the girl? Why would that be?

Gintoki took a step forward as kids began trailing out of the school. Hijikata was about to ask then, but then he caught the look in Gintoki's eye, and shut his mouth.

That was the same look he had when he was sizing up an opponent or searching a suspicious or dangerous area. Careful, calculated, cold and concentrated, Gintoki was checking every single kid walking out of the school.  His eyes lingered on groups of rowdy boys or girls, looking for any threat to Shinpachi.

When Shinpachi stepped out of the door, Gintoki took a couple steps forward, to lean against a tree in clear view. He opened a chocolate bar that he had in his pocket and began nibbling on it.

Shinpachi looked around, and when he spotted Gintoki he walked over. "Gin-san, don't stand there eating chocolate like that, it's embarrassing! I don't want to be associated with a freak like you," Shinpachi scolded. Gintoki's pout make Hijikata snicker. 

Shinpachi looked over to the policeman. "Good afternoon Hijikata-san, please don't tell me Gin-san did something?" 

Hijikata lit up a cigarette. "No, not yet, I'm just on patrol and saw him peeping on some high schools, came to check it out," Hijikata took a deep inhale of his nicotine. 

Gintoki squabbled. "What?! No, I wasn't peeping! I promise!" Seeing Shinpachi's accusing look, he moved over to smack Hijikata. The raven, with a lung full of smoke, wasn't ready and burst out coughing as Gintoki slapped his back indignantly, protesting that he wasn't a pedophile. 

Shinpachi rolled his eyes. "Please, can we go already? I don't want people to see me with you idiots." 

Grumbling, Gintoki agreed and began walking. Hijikata wondered at the back of his head when he became a part of 'you idiots'. 

Shinpachi and Gintoki began walking while Hijikata stood there, unsure. After a couple of seconds, Gintoki threw him a careless look over his shoulder. "You coming or what?" 

Pausing for a second, he began walking. It wasn't like he was walking with them, really. This was his patrol route and he just so happened to be walking near his neighbours, that was all. The three of them walked towards Kagura's school, Gintoki going on about how he won big at Pachinko. When they made it to the middle school, they only had to wait a couple of seconds before Kagura came running to them. 

"Gin-chan! Shinpachi! Police officer guy-aru!" 

Instinctively Hijikata took a step back from the ball of energy that was the little girl. Gintoki didn't seem phased and didn't even blink, not even as she jumped and clung onto him. "Yo, Kagura, ready to go?" 

Kagura nodded, smiling brilliantly. Turning away from them, she waved to a girl who was surrounded by men in black. The girl smiled sweetly and waved back. Hijikata stared. Wasn't that Soyo? The president's sister? 

Kagura began dragging Gintoki away from the school. "Ano ne, Gin-chan, Soyohime is really nice-aru!  Even though she's like a princess she isn't rude or snotty at all-aru! She didn't even get angry when I spilled my paint all over her, or when I accidentally ate her lunch!" 

Gintoki stared, wide eyed, before curling up into a ball in the middle of the road. "This is it. This is the end of me. I'm going to be arrested and put into jail for your mistakes," he cried despondently, curled on the ground. 

Hijikata stared, half amused and half annoyed. Of course his showed nothing but the latter. "Oi, Natural perm, get up. You're blocking the road. If a car runs over you it'll be your own fault." 

Gintoki pouted but got up after a second. Kagura giggled. "Don't worry, Gin-chan! We're best friends now-aru!" 

Gintoki scoffed. "Are you sure you didn't bully her or scare her into being your friend? Those bodyguards were looking pretty suspiciously at you." 

Kagura smiled brightly. "They're just angry I made it past them 6 times today!" 

"I don't think I even want to know why you were running from them in the first place," Gintoki said, shaking his head. "Anyways, Shinpachi, did you meet anybody? A girl maybe?" Gintoki nudged him, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. 

Shinpachi blushed. "G-Gin-san! Of course not!" Taking a deep breath in, he composed himself. "B-but there is this, uh, club, a Terakada Otsuu fanclub, and, uh, I met some of the people in it. They were all really nice." 

Noticing Hijikata's confused look, he clarified. "Ah, Otsuu-chan is a model and singer, she's getting really famous now."

The raven could see the affection hidden by sarcasm and goofiness in Gintoki's eyes. "Well? Did you join, Pachi-boy?" 

"Don't call me that! That's embarrassing! And, well they meet after school every couple days, and I wanted to um make sure I could stay late at school?" He looked up to the silver-haired idiot a little anxiously. 

Gintoki yawned. "I don't really care, but make sure to tell your sister. She'll worry if you don't."  Hijikata wondered of this sister. He had yet to meet the woman that Gintoki saved. 

"Gin-chan, can i stay at school late too?" Kagura asked. Hijikata could see the hesitation in his eyes, so he intervened. It wasn't like he cared about Gintoki or the girl, he was just doing his duty as a man of the law.

"Ah, there's this new bylaw stating that all kids under 14 must be with an adult after sunset if they are outside, apparently there's been some umm bad people out in the city recently." He wasn't sure if he was allowed to say 'pedophiles' in front of her. His questions were answered a moment later.

"You mean like perverts and hentai?" Kagura asked innocently. 

". . .Yes." 

Kagura nodded and began babbling about her math teacher's hair, which reminded her of a ferret, and how her art teacher said her drawing was inappropriate for anybody under the age of 18, and Shinpachi butted in here and there to tell Kagura to stop cursing, and Gintoki butting in to get them to stop quibbling, with Hijikata throwing in a comment about how that definitely wasn't legal here and there. 

It was strange, Hijikata thought. He and Gintoki had a nice little angry discussion about weather mayo or chocolate was better (he totally won that argument, mayo was much better), and it was strange in a way that nothing else was. Even if Gintoki was really weird and annoying and even if Kagura seemed to think he was a shield from Shinpachi's scolding words. His felt strange. He hadn't felt this way for a long time, and wasn't able to recognize what exactly it was he was feeling. What was this emotion? It wasn't anger, not really annoyance or irritation, not exasperation, not any of the things he usually felt on a daily basis. Whatever it was, he didn't mind it. 

. . .Until Sougo came and flicked his cigarette out of his mouth. 

"Oi, you damn bastard--" 

"Hijikata-san, I don't think you should be swearing in front of children," he monotonously cut Hijikata off. 

"Who are you calling a child-aru?!" Kagura exclaimed, terribly offended. Sougo looked at her condescendingly, which pissed her off. 

"Who else but the little girl in front of me?" he asked with mock innocence. Nobody but Gintoki noticed the small smile hiding behind his nonchalant facade. Gintoki rolled his eyes and kept an eye out for the sadist's flirting.

Watching Kagura's brow tick, Hijikata was relieved to see somebody else felt the same way about Sougo that he did. 

Ignoring Kagura, Sougo turned around and nodded to Gintoki. "Hey Danna," he greeted. "Nice weather we're having."

Instantly Hijikata was pissed off. "Why does he get a polite greeting and I don't?" 

Gintoki and Sougo smirked at him, before chatting about the shop three blocks away. "They have really good strawberry dango," Sougo was saying. 

They continued that way home, with Shinpachi struggling to keep Kagura from attacking Sougo, said sadist chatting with Gintoki, casually insulting Hijikata in their conversation. Hijikata and Sougo didn't even realize that they were standing in front of their homes, until Gintoki was calling a bye as he dragged Kagura across the street and into their house, with Shinpachi yelling behind them. 

Hijikata and Sougo stood there for a moment, before Hijikata stuck another cigarette in his mouth and lit it, walking back to the station on his normal patrol route. Sougo got bored and left somewhere, he must have teleported behind a garbage can or something because one second he was there and the next he wasn't. It made Hijikata anxious, his ability to be there and then not. 

Sighing, Hijikata stuck a hand in his pocket. When his fingers hit something crinkly, he startled a little. He didn't have any cellophane in his pocket. Pulling the object out of his pocket carefully and nervously --did Sougo stick something there? Was it a bomb?-- he stared, shocked when he realized it was the wrapper of the chocolate bar Gintoki was eating before. 

Instantly he was pissed off. "Damn shitty permed bastard," he cursed, ignoring the horrified look he received from a lady walking by him. All that he was thinking earlier about Gintoki being not bad? Yeah, no. Gintoki was awful. 

 

 

 

 

With a tired yawn, Hijikata walked up his tiny lawn to his house. He pointedly ignored the house across his, he was still irritated at Gintoki shoving his garbage into his pocket. How did he even do that without Hijikata noticing? He must have teamed up with Sougo, was the logical answer, to irritate him. 

He pulled his keys out of his pocket, finding the silver one to his home door easily. Shoving it lazily in the door knob, he jumped violently when he realized that his door was unlocked. 

Instantly, all the fatigue was washed away, and replaced with cold, intense, anxious fury. It couldn't have been Sougo, because Sougo was never that obvious. he had different ways of getting in other than the front door, and if he did use the front door he was sure to lock the door behind him to give Hijikata  a false sense of security before scaring the life out of him by sitting in his kitchen and casually eating an orange or dango or sleeping in Hijikata's bed or something else horrible creepy. 

His mind flickered to the neighbours across the street but a look at their house told him it couldn't have been them, he could see faint outlines of bodies through the front door, and if he listened closely he could hear something resembling a high pitched male voice screaming 'KAGUURAA!' 

Who else could have broke into his house? His heart thumped in his chest, and his mind felt clear, adrenaline was kicking in. Cautiously, he pushed the unlocked door open, wincing at the squeak, he really should fix that, and peered in. 

Noting seemed wrong except his living room light was on. 

Hijikata cursed to himself, wishing he could bring his gun home with him. He wasn't allowed to, unfortunately, and was only equipped with the smaller gun with rubber bullets rather than his usual pistol. However, he did know seven ways to get somebody unconscious in 6 seconds flat using the rubber bullets, so it wasn't like he was defenseless. He ran over them in his head, preparing to meet a burglar or thief or something, like that ugly cat-girl a couple months ago. 

What he did see, was a tall brunette wearing sunglasses and a long red coat, flipping through some shady looking magazine while sipping some beer on his sofa. 

His beer. 

Hijikata pulled out his gun. "This is the police, put your hands up," he started, but was cut off by hysterical laughter. 

"Ahaha, ahaha, Yo, Kintoki! It's a'been a while, no? I gotcha some o'dat shit y'like!" He spoke with a strange accent, and gestured towards the stack of indecent magazines being hidden by his coat. 

"Who the _hell_ are you?"

"Ahaha, ahaha, what'cha mean Kintoki? Zura told me y'were a'moving! I came t'give y'this shit!" Hijikata didn't know this man, but he was already irritated by him. The way he spoke was seriously annoying, it was half southern and had eight different accents mixed in. 

However, the word Zura rang in his mind. The super-pretty guy who had casually broke into Gintoki's house had told this creep that Gintoki was moving. And this guy was calling him Kintoki, so either he was blind and didn't realize he was in the wrong house or he was stupid and didn't realize he was in the wrong house. Hijikata suspected the latter. 

He sighed, irritated out of his mind. Why was Gintoki friends with such strange people? There was the girl who didn't have any decency what so ever, the pretty boy who casually broke in to his house, this air head who broke into the _wrong_ house, he really didn't want to meet the other strange people Gintoki seemed to attract. 

A moment later he heard the squeak of the door opening again and startled. He pulled his fake gun out in front of him, ready to shoot, as he heard footsteps heading towards him. He shot a cautious look at the freak sitting obliviously on his sofa, wearing a very perverted expression as he stared at a picture of a woman in next to no clothing. 

Finally the second intruder revealed themselves. In walked a pretty looking girl with sharp, bright, brown eyes and hair, wearing a thin coat and sun hat. 

Ignoring Hijikata, she calmly walked over to where the pervert was sitting and promptly punched him in the face, knocking him out swiftly. 

Hijikata startled at the sudden display of violence from the otherwise innocent looking girl. His guards were all raised, and he was literally about to shoot a pressure point when she turned to him. 

"Sorry," she apologized, bowing lightly. "I assume you know Gintoki. This idiot wanted to surprise him, but entered the wrong house. I'll get rid of him promptly." 

She leaned down to put his arm around her shoulder, and tried to pick him up. She seemed to be doing okay with dragging him, but Hijikata and his sense of honour wouldn't allow a girl to do all that work, that and he was a little worried of what she meant when she said she'd 'get rid of him' and so he offered to help, putting his gun away. He was a policeman, and helping citizens was his job, he spent an hour helping a hysterically crying girl find a kitten just hours ago. 

The girl just nodded her thanks and the two of them easily carried the brown permy-haired guy across the street, Hijikata locking the door so no more creepy people could get in. When they got to Gintoki's house, The girl opened the door by kicking it --which startled Hijikata, was that a thing? People kicking doors open?-- and casually walked in. 

Gintoki was sitting on the ground on his stomach looking like he was in a lot of pain with the polar bear-dog hybrid sitting on his back, Kagura riding it like a rodeo while Shinpachi sat there yelling at them to quit it. 

The sight of it made Hijikata's lips twitch but he suppressed the urge to snicker at the idiots and wore his usual glare. It was hard not to abandon it and snicker when Kagura began yelling cowboy phrases in horrible Engrish and grabbed Gintoki's jacket and swung it like a lasso.

When Gintoki looked up and saw them, he groaned. 

"Mutsuuuuuu!" he whined. "Why did you bring that _Baka_ -moto here? I don't want him! Take him home!" 

Mutsu, the girl Hijikata assumed, looked calmly at Gintoki. "Good evening Gintoki. Sakamoto wanted to give you some trashy porn magazines as a house warming present, but he broke into the wrong house and left them there." she summarized the evening perfectly. 

Hijikata stared at the girl. Another strange person. 

She removed Sakamoto' arm from her shoulder, and the sudden weight of the guy --Sakamoto-- being thrown on him made him drop his hold on him. Sakamoto dropped to the floor. 

Kagura squealed in delight. "He brought more-aru?! Can I see them?! Please-aru?!"  Why Kagura was so excited about looking at porn magazines, Hijikata didn't know. However he felt it necessary to intervene. The cover image of the ones he saw were most certainly not appropriate for a girl her age. If Gintoki wasn't going to parent her correctly, well fine but not on Hijikata's watch. If thought any harder about the images he saw, he'd be blushing, he definitely didn't want his young neighbour seeing such things on his watch.

"I didn't see them all, but I know they are defintely 18+." 

Kagura whined. "But what else am I supposed to use as inspiration for my essays on issues of humanity-aru?" 

"It's fine," Gintoki told them. "Kagura, you can take them. Give them to Shinpachi when you're done with them." 

Shinpachi instantly turned red. "G-G-G-Gin-san! I don't need them!" 

Gintoki sent him a teasing leer. "Oh yeah? I know why you asked for a lock on your door Shinpachi. You little pervert!" 

Shinpachi turned even more red. "Gin-san! We have guests! Don't say such indecent things!"

Suddenly Sakamoto woke up. He looked around through the lens of his crooked sunglasses. "Ahahaha, ahahaha, Kintoki!" 

Gintoki was instantly irritated. "Don't call me that, _Baka_ -moto!"

"Ahahaha, ahahaha, Is a'this y'house? S'nice for n'idiot like you!" 

"Whose the idiot?" Gintoki scowled. Hijikata stared, unamused. _'You are'_ , he conveyed mentally.

The perm head felt a gaze on him and felt Mutsu silently questioning him. They weren't that close, but anybody who was friends with Sakamoto was friends with Mutsu by default. She was the one who responded to his texts, seeing as how Sakamoto couldn't be trusted to do that himself.

"Mutsu, this is Hijikata, and Oogushi, that's Mutsu," he introduced them. Mutsu nodded once, and the raven scowled. Sakamoto laughed obnoxiously, which only made Hijikata's scowl deepen.

"Why are you calling me Oogushi right after telling her my name?"

Gintoki stuck his tongue out at the raven and tried to wiggle out from under the dog and Kagura, who was lounging casually on the dog, having lost interest in the conversation and instead read the latest issue of JUMP that Gintoki had lying around. Sakamoto snickered through his laughter.

"Anyways, Oogushi-kun, this idiot here is an idiot, so just call him that."

"Whose the idiot?" Hijikata muttered, earning a quiet huff of laughter from Mutsu.

"I heard that, you mayo-freak. Sofa-kun told me about your perverted mayo fetish, and I think it's disgusting," Gintoki sent him a judging look, and Hijikata bristled.

"There is nothing wrong with liking mayo! Mayo is delicious and you're an idiot for not realizing it," he glared at Gintoki, daring the perm head to say otherwise.

He just rolled his eyes. "Anyways, that idiot," he nodded at Sakamoto, who stared blankly with a goofy expression on his face, "Is actually a pilot, he owns a shipping company. Though Mutsu is the one who really runs it." Hijikata looked at the girl beside him with a new found respect, and pity. Poor her, working with an airhead like that. Must be awful.

"Sakamoto took us skydiving-aru!" Kagura cut in, interested in the topic. "But we almost died because he jumped out too even though he was supposed to be flying the plane-aru. And he got our parachutes off eBay and they were ripped so we almost died."

Right. More information that although interesting, Hijikata doubted he ever needed.

"Kagura-chan! Y'wanna go 'gen?" Sakamoto smiled. Kagura nodded eagerly, jumping off the dog to crouch next to the man who was still slumped by Mutsu's feet. They eagerly began discussing skydiving techniques and porn, and Gintoki finally managed to push the dog off of him and get up.

He cracked his back with a wince. "Kagura, your dog needs to go on a diet," he whined.

"How rude, Gin-chan! Sadaharu is perfect just the way he is-aru!" Kagura snapped, sending the perm head a dirty look before resuming her conversation with Sakamoto. Shinpachi sighed in the background, cleaning up the sukonbu Kagura spilled while riding Sadaharu and muttered about how everyone treated him like a maid.

Gintoki grunted his disagreement and began doing various stretches, wincing a little every time his back snapped or cracked. He stood, then bent his back backwards and put his hands up, or down reall for support, doing the bridge, and Hijikata had to avert his eyes. Why? Because Gintoki's shirt was riding up and he could see a strip of pale, smooth skin with muscles rippling underneath it. But why did he avert his eyes? They were both men, weren't they? Hijikata didn't know. The muscles, the flexibility, ~~it was doing things to him~~ it was indecent.

Hijikata was curious and sorta wanted to stay and see what would happen in this freak show that was Gintoki's life but he was also tired and so done with humanity for the day. "I'm leaving," he announced, turning around. Shinpachi yelled a bye and good night to him, and Gintoki grunted but that was it. He made his way home, scowling at the trashy magazines in his living room, and made a mental note to burn them. Exhausted from work and exasperated from talking to Gintoki, he made his way onto his bed and stripped, falling asleep in his boxers. The last thing he saw was the image of Gintoki's lean, pale, and muscled body bending as he groaned and grunted.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to give me your requests, what you wanna see in the upcoming chapters. I'll do my best to add them in :)
> 
> So because I like talking to readers, I'll ask a couple question to hopefully get you commenting:  
> What did you think about Zura's box of house signs-->I don't really know what they are called? Like those things you put around your house on walls and stuff?? What about Kagura's insecurity? The Yorozuya family? Hijikata? Sougo? Do you wanna see more Kondou in the upcoming chapters? Or Otae? Or Zura? Or any other character, really? Thoughts on Kagura becoming friends with Soyo? What are the names of the other Otsuu fans in the Otsuu imperal guard thing, I don't remember any other than Taka-tin, lol ? Thoughts on Sakamoto? Mutsu? 
> 
> Also how do you write an essay I CAN'T WRITE AN ESSAY seriously any tips would be much appreciated. I'm gonna fail English this year becuase holy shit why do I need to write a commentary about some shitty poem of a guy whose in love with a girl??? I don't care???  
> Sorry. But really, any tips on how to write an A grade essay would be great! Please help me
> 
> I've got a couple Kyuubei/Otae and some Kondou/Otae so idk, I'll just continue asking that because idk, so if you want one of them please comment it below :) I'm going with whichever gets more comments so yeah.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit happens  
> Aka drinking with Otose, Kagura destroying a store, and deep, mysterious conversations with Zura

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo  
> Sorry for not updating in like forever  
> But here it is
> 
> I wrote the bulk of this chapter in one sitting. One sitting. It took me like 4 hours even though its only like 5-6 thousand words  
> No, I don't type at the speed of twelve words a minute. It was more like, write rapidly for ten minutes and then sit there blankly for twenty as I try to come up with more ideas  
> But I'm the type of person who writes like maybe 500 words at a time so this is like a lot
> 
> So i hope you enjoy it  
> Sorry for being a dick and never updating  
> Also sorry for there being so little GinHiji interaction
> 
> (unedited)

 

 

 

 

 

Katsura smiled encouragingly. "Yes, that's right Shinpachi-kun. And then the next battle happened here, after two years," he pointed to a spot on the map.

Shinpachi nodded. "I get it now. What about this question?"

"Ne, Zura, what did they use to fight?" Kagura called from where she lay on the sofa. "Their hands? Feet? Knives? That sounds like fun. I want to beat people up and throw knives. Gin-chan we should have been born during the war," Kagura complained.

Gintoki rolled his eyes. "Only you would want to be born during a war for a free excuse to beat people up," Gintoki gave an exaggerated sigh. "You'd probably be some race of your own. Probably a failed biological weapon." 

"Besides, Kagura," Shinpachi cut in, rolling his eyes, "You beat people up anyways. I doubt being born in the past would have changed your lack of control over your fists."

"They insulted Sadaharu 21!" Kagura insisted. "It wasn't my fault!" 

"To answer your question, Leader, they used katanas to fight. Fighting with your hands is bad for your skin, it will get rough if you don't moisturize them properly, and it is very difficult to slice necks without a weapon," the long haired raven piped in. 

Gintoki rolled his eyes again. "Why am I surrounded by idiots?"

Shinpachi sighed. "You're apart of those idiots, Gin-san. Anyways, Katsura-san, what effect did the war have on the neighbouring countries?" 

As Katsura lectured Shinpachi, Gintoki hummed the Doraemon theme song quietly and watched his beloved Ketsuno Ana give the weather report. Easily becoming bored once it was finished, he rolled around a little, looking for something to do. Did they have any job requests? No, not until he put his new address on his advertisements. Did he have any cases to work on? Yeah, but they were boring, he'd win even if he winged them on the spot, something he intended to do anyways.

When the tutoring session was over Gintoki had become a burrito, wrapped up in a blanket on the sofa mindlessly watching the TV and wiggling. "There's nothing to do," he whined. There was still two days before the next issue of JUMP came out, he already had his weekly intake of parfaits and strawberry milk, he didn't want to get dressed to do something like go to the movies, and he had no extra cash to blow on pachinko or booze until his next job or case, whichever came first.

"You still have to buy me those sparkly pens you promised-aru," Kagura accused. "Why don't you have fun doing that, lazy ass?"

Gintoki groaned. "I'll do that tomorrow," he muttered from his warm little hole.

"No, you'll do it today! Think of poor little Kagura, deprived of her right to use her sparkly coloured pens that you promised to get, Gin-chan. Get up!" And with a swing of her fist he was up. 

"Okay, okay! Sheesh, no need to get violent," he muttered. "But if I have to get dressed and go out you do too." 

Kagura thought about it. "Okay, I'll pick the pens I like," she agreed. "And you'll pay." 

The two got dressed, Gintoki not even bothering to deal with his hair. His curls were extra fussy and he was sure he looked like he had some type of animal living in there, but he didn't really care. Maybe he'd pay the old hag a visit after he finished with Kagura to get some free booze. He'd talk to Tama too, it had been a while since he saw his green-haired friend and he missed her, they'd have to catch up. 

 

 

 

 

After Katsura waved them off like the housewife he was, Gintoki and Kagura made their way to the nearest dollar store. Kagura insisted on taking Sadaharu with them, and Gintoki spent half the time trying not to get bitten by the monstrous dog. Kagura was content lying on the white beast's back, giggling at Gintoki and taking in her new neighbourhood.

When they found the shop, Gintoki waved Kagura off with a couple of bills and a promise of meeting her at the store in an hour or so, intending to see the old hag and Tama if she was in. He felt a pang of homesickness when he turned onto his old street, seeing the familiar faces and buildings, and tried to ignore it. He couldn't expect Otose to put up with him forever, even if he wanted her to. He convinced himself he was okay, he wouldn't mind if they moved on, but still felt a wave of relief to see his old home above her bar hadn't been sold just yet. 

Walking in, he took in the familiar smell, of the clean floors courtesy of Tama, the light scent of smoke ~~and old people smell~~ , alcohol, and Catherine's pungent perfume-- the smell of home. It hit him hard, and his neutral expression wavered for a split second before he composed himself. 

"Yo, old hag," he greeted, walking in like he was meant to be there, like he never left. He heard Catherine tch-ing, muttering about how he shouldn't have come back, but ignored it and her irritation after he gave her the finger. 

Otose was smoking behind the bar, eyes closed, calm, looking just as she had when Gintoki left. She took a deep inhale, opening her eyes and looking Gintoki up and down subtly as she blew it out.

"Gintoki," she greeted, cool as always. "Did you need something? If you're looking for any of the trash you left I threw it out."

Gintoki groaned, slipping into his usual seat. "But I left a note saying that was your early Christmas and retirement gift!" It was easy to fall into their usual routine of banter.

"I have no use for an old, used backscrubber and broken TV," she scoffed, grabbing a bottle-- Gintoki's favourite. "I bet you were just too lazy to throw them out yourself. And who's retiring? It ain't me," she retorted. 

Gintoki huffed, smiling cheekily. "I figured you wouldn't be able to reach your back anymore, you're not in the spring of your youth, you know? You know what they say-- one man's trash is another man's backscrubber. Also, the TV works fine, Gengai said it would be okay another week or so!"

Otose poured him a glass. "That's not how the saying goes, idiot. And I have no need for your trash. How's the house? I'm surprised you haven't burned it down yet," she commented dryly, her way of expressing concern.

"How rude. Everything's fine, Kagura and Shinpachi have started school. Do you know how much work it is to enroll your kids in school nowadays? Back in the day you just had to walk in and everything settled itself." Gintoki drank slowly, not intending to get drunk. 

Otose huffed. "That's because there was somebody else doing all the paperwork, idiot. Where are they?"

"Kagura's out shopping. She. . .had a hard time in the beginning, getting used to everything."

Otose hummed. "It can't be helped. After all of  _that_ , I'd be surprised if she wasn't affected in some way. And Shinpachi? His sister came in a couple days ago."

Gintoki was quiet a moment. Of course, Otae was concerned about Shinpachi's future too. "I'm more worried about him. Kagura can bounce back quickly, but Shinpachi keeps things to himself and bottles it in so that he won't be a bother. If he doesn't let it out, it could blow up on him."

It was a silent, sobering second, before Gintoki broke it. "But his studies are fine. Right now, Zura is helping him with history. He's still choosing his future career though." 

Otose took it in. "Hm. Keep an eye on him." 

Gintoki nodded. If Otose was worried about the glasses wearing boy, Gintoki would be, if he wasn't already. "Of course. How's the shop?"

"Everything's the same. A couple of your regulars were asking where you got off to, you should put up a sign addressing the change of address."

Gintoki hummed. "Yeah, was going to. I hate doing cases. 'D much rather do Yorozuya work." 

Otose scoffed. "I'm not your landlord anymore, idiot, now you have to actually pay your bills if you want water and heat and electricity. Geez, I was too lax on you. Not gonna make the same mistake." She shook her head. 

Another pang. "You gonna rent it out again?" 

Otose was quiet a moment, before taking a deep inhale. She watched Gintoki over closely and Gintoki had a feeling Otose knew how he was feeling. He wouldn't put it past her to have seen him loose his composure that split second in the door way. Only Otose could read him like that and recognize his homesickness that he hid so well.

"Was gonna use it as storage for now," she finally said. "Business has been picking up lately with the economy rising, might extend the bar."

More relief. "Well if you decide to remodel give me a call. You'll have to pay though."

Otose huffed. "Like I'd call you."

"Aww, come on, I'll give you a 7% discount!" 

"Like hell I need that!"

 

 

 

 

Kagura was in a bad mood.

It was evident, in the way she scowled at everything, ignored Sadaharu, stomped angrily on ants, something had pissed her off. 

Gintoki was just glad he didn't have to pay damages. Sighing to himself, he decided it would be best to ask her what made her angry enough to knock down three aisles at the dollar store.

"Did you get your pens?" he asked. 

Kagura inhaled.

"It's not my fault! I wasn't doing anything! I was just looking for some sparkly damn pens because I couldn't find any in the office supplies aisle and so I thought I'd ask a freaking sales person, okay?! So I go to this slightly cute guy stacking instant noodles and ask him where they would be and he leads me to them and asks me if their for my sister! He was a nice guy and we started talking a little, I told him no, they're for my essay because we aren't allowed to write in blue ink because the teacher uses blue ink to mark, so he showing me where they were and then this absolute _asshole_ , is just standing there in the middle of the damn aisle, looking like a cock-sucking douchebag, and I ask him to move-- I _asked_ him! I wasn't even being rude or using violence or anything, okay?!-- and he gives me this irritating condescending look and asks me to repeat it, and I did because I thought he had some type of hearing problem-- you never know, okay?!-- and he says, 'Oh, I didn't hear you, you're too short'!!"

Kagura took another deep breath.

"So I ask him what's his problem, I hadn't even done anything to him, and he says 'You were busy flirting with that sales guy, weren't you? Having fun?' And I was like super pissed, okay?! I hadn't even said anything to him and he was acting like an insecure fuckboy with a crusty dick! So I told him to fuck off and leave me alone before I got angry, and he said 'I was going to insult your intelligence, but I see you don't have any'! So then I said 'I will shove your entire upper body into your own ass and make you fuck yourself from the inside out if you don't shut the fuck up you cunt faced, useless fungal infection'--"

Gintoki couldn't stop his lips from twitching at her vocabulary.

"--and what does he say? He says, 'Oh I get it, that was like a joke, but not funny' and gives me this _look_ and so I try to hit him but he moves and the fucking aisle falls over-- I didn't even hit it that hard! And so I said 'Save your breath, you'll need it to blow up your date tonight,' and he gets irritated or something because he knocks over the other aisle and says 'Save your breath because you'll need it to blow the sales person in the parking lot tonight' --can you believe the _nerve_ of that guy?! If anybody's sucking a dick tonight it's him!-- and then the manager came to us and yelled at us to get out so I leave and he followed me okay and I asked him what the hell he wanted and he threw _this_ at me and left."

Kagura held up a slightly crushed pack of sparkly pens.

"I didn't even do anything! I can't believe that we let that asshole into our house! He touched our stuff! Ugh!" Kagura threw the package of pens on the ground. 

Gintoki sighs. Basically, Sougo got jealous of Kagura talking to a cute guy, felt threatened and retaliated like a child. 

"No swearing," he finally says. "Shinpachi would have a heart attack if he heard half of the things you just said." He leaned over and picked up the pens. "Did he even pay for these?" he wondered out loud. 

"I don't care! I'm not using them!" Kagura yelled, turning away. Gintoki sighed, rolling his eyes. Kids. Even if Taka--his worst enemy threw him the latest issue of JUMP at him, he'd take it gratefully. Free stuff was free stuff, after all. He pocketed the pens, intending to give them to her when she had forgotten about it all. 

Kagura stomped the rest of the way to the house and Gintoki followed, half amused and half annoyed. Kagura was too young to be having boy troubles. He'd have to talk to Sougo again about waiting until she was older, maybe 28? before she could date. 

He sighed. If their relationship continued at this rate, they wouldn't get together for years. Which was something he was totally okay with.

 

 

 

 

"Zuraaaaaaaaaaaaaa," Gintoki whined. "Kagura's too young for that dating-romance bullshit! Why are you smiling like that?!" 

Katsura smiled. "Kagura is a growing female, Gintoki, it is only normal she start feeling things for guys. I'm just surprised the guy approached her first. She is coming to be very beautiful, isn't she?" He gave a happy sigh. "And it's not Zura, it's Katsura."

Gintoki pouted. 

He shifted so that he was lying down sideways, his head resting on Katsura's lap. Gintoki's body was too long for the park bench he was sitting off, and half of his legs dangled off the sides, but he didn't care. Elizabeth nipped at his toes playfully before running away to pick at some bread crumbs. Gintoki thought about how much he wished he had a trained duck over a huge, half-wild dog.

It was a nice day, the wind was blowing lightly, fluffing up his already fluffy curls. The sun peeked out from patches in the sky, but it didn't shine directly on the two males, something Gintoki was grateful for, as he burned easily. The park was relatively quiet, seeing as how it was a work/school day the main people around were people with children or homeless people-- Gintoki pointedly ignored a man who looked suspiciously like his drinking buddy, Hasegawa, who was waving at them from across the park, presumable having another 'why do I exist' moment after failing to get another job. Which was depressing, so Gintoki pretended he didn't see him. 

He could hear children's cheers from the play structure to their right, and was thankful that he didn't have any toddlers as he spotted a woman frantically trying to catch her wailing, naked daughter running in between the trees, bushes and flowers of the garden area. He spotted another woman laughing from the side, her hair a similar colour to Ikumatsu's.

Speaking of Ikumatsu.

"Oh yeah, Zura, how are things with Ikumatsu? You said you were going to ask her out, right?" Gintoki looked up from Katsura's lap to watch his friend closely.

Katusra's face fell minutely, and Gintoki immediately knew that he wouldn't be hearing good news. Katsura looked at him, trying to be strong, but Gintoki was one of the very few people who could see past his every mask, and eventually he gave up. 

"I asked her out," he said quietly. "But she..."

It concerned Gintoki that his friend hadn't immediately protested to him calling him Zura. That was never good news.

"She looked a little happy that I confessed so I thought she'd say yes, but she said she couldn't be in a relationship with me. It's been three years since her husband died but she said she couldn't. I understand, but...It's selfish and awful of me, but I wish she..."

Gintoki reached out and tugged on a lock of Katsura's long hair. "It isn't awful of you to want her, okay? It's called being in love. If you aren't selfish, you'll never get the person you love." 

Katsura didn't look convinced. 

"If you aren't selfish enough to ask the woman you love to go out with you, even though there are plenty of other guys, possible better guys for her, you'll never get her. If you aren't selfish enough to want her, and act on that desire, you'll never get her. It's not your fault she didn't go out with you, okay? You just have to be more selfish and ask again and again when she is ready to date."

A small smile appeared on Katsura's face. "You have messed up views on love, you know. I've never heard anyone describe love as being selfish. Most people say it's being selfless."

Gintoki snorted. "But isn't that what love is? When you ask a person out, you're being selfish. When you ask them out on dates, kiss them, monopolize them, you're being selfish. You're doing what you want, just being decadent and self-indulgent."

Gintoki thought about Shouyou. It was selfish of him to spend so much time with the kind, selfless man. He was awfully selfish for spending all that time together. Shouyou could have taught numerous orphans, could have helped many others in the time of his that Gintoki monopolized. 

Katsura frowned. "If what you're saying is true, then both parties involved are selfish. When you ask them out, they don't go out with you for no reason. The other person returns the favor. They don't kiss you and hug you because you want them to, because that's not love. They spend time with you, go on dates with you because they want it. So what you're saying is, that love is about both people involved being selfish."

Gintoki thought about Shouyou abiding by his whims. Buying him JUMP. Giving him money, clothes, food, without Gintoki saying anything. Visiting him in the middle of the night when he had nightmares. Katsura and Takasugi could have studied, done things worth their time instead of hanging out with Gintoki, but they didn't. They stayed. They could have told Gintoki no, left him alone, but they stayed of their own accord. 

"Maybe," he said. 

It was getting too deep for Gintoki, so he changed the topic. Katsura was no longer upset, just thoughtful, so mission accomplished.

"Oh yeah, you were telling me about that guy last time, what was his name? ...Ah right! Saito Shimaru. How are things going with your 'infiltration'?"

Katsura's group didn't make any sense. They were protesters against the government, those annoying people that never shut up about this and that and how the government was going corrupt and all. They used to be violent, starting fires and blocking important roads, even going as far as attacking certain individuals to get their point across, to get recognition and support.

Luckily, Gintoki had calmed Katsura down, but the modern Jouishishi was a large group and Katsura only controlled a certain part of it. Police had orders to arrest all Jouishishi affiliated civilians anytime, anywhere. However Katsura couldn't do anything with police keeping their ears open to every mention of them, so he decided to start what he called a 'friendly' infiltration. 

How? Seduction.

Katsura scowled. "I hate him! He is extremely infuriating. Him and his big orange afro! All he does is sleep and make these irritating 'zzzz' noises! I don't understand how he is even such a high ranking police officer! He never looked at me--Zurako even once! Zurako is beautiful. I don't understand how he can ignore me! Such a brute!" 

Gintoki couldn't hide the amusement. "Maybe he isn't attracted to you as Zurako?"

Katsura scowled at Gintoki. "What do you mean?"

Gintoki smirked. "Maybe he prefers men? Try going to him as Zura. You're totally a twink. With a disguise of course, and not your ridiculous afro and mustache one. I don't understand why you even have that."

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura! And I never thought of that! That's the only reasonable explanation that he wouldn't be attracted to Zurako. Yoshi! That's what I'll do!" Katsura deliberately ignored the twink comment, not feeling like starting another argument about whether or not he was a twink-- he wasn't, even if Gintoki thought he was.

Gintoki couldn't help the chuckle. Katsura was definitely feeling better, and in return so was he.

 

 

 

 

Hijikata strolled across the parks, ignoring the looks he got from the single moms. He lit up a cigarette and let it lay idly in his mouth, intending to complete his route across the park in the time it took for the cigarette to burn to ashes. 

It was a nice day, and he wasn't feeling irritated or annoyed like usual-- Kondou was busy at a meeting, and Sougo was running around being a horrible human being somewhere far away from him, so he had only gone through 2 cigarettes the entire day. Which was probably a record. 

He was musing over his latest work related issue-- the Jouishishi. Once a ferocious, feared group recognized and scorned across the world, they were now broken, scattered across all of Japan, each individual group working separately, some more violent than others, but all insignificant gangs that were nothing but pains in policemen's asses.

No, the bigger issue was the Kiheitai. A new group, but very powerful. The leader was a wanted fugitive of the state, rumors saying he was once a big man of the Old Jouishishi. Rumors also said they were in league with the Harasume, the most prominent name in the Yakuza world right now. Which was trouble for police. Illegal weapons dealing, drugs, they were in control of the black market. Harasume were international too, and it would not be wrong to call them one of the largest crime syndicates globally.

Hijikata sighed. Thinking about it wouldn't do him any good, when he got back to the station he'd continue his earlier searches for the leader of the Jouishishi in the area. So far, he had narrowed it down to be some one young, late to early twenties. 

He was musing about it when he saw something that shocked him so bad he dropped his cigarette. He mentally cursed, it was his last one, and it was a total waste too.

Hijikata was quick to hide behind a tree, hoping his much disliked neighbour hadn't seen him yet. He peeked around the tree, and luckily, it didn't seem Gintoki had. 

He tree hopped like a ninja, moving closer. Gintoki was sitting with a girl with long black hair, resting on a park bench. His head was resting in the girl's lap, and the girl played with his curls. 

Hijikata's heart began pounding lightly in his chest. He didn't know why, but he didn't want to be seen. Who was the girl? Gintoki never mentioned a girlfriend, he thought with a scowl. It deepened a second later. Why did he care about whether or not Gintoki had a lover? It wasn't any of his business. 

That didn't stop him from moving closer, though. Finally, he made it behind a tree conveniently placed so that he could see Gintoki through a forked branch and he could hear them. 

The girl was pretty, he thought darkly. He couldn't see the entire face, just a part from the side, but she had fair skin, high cheekbones, long lashes and thin, pink lips. And Gintoki didn't look too bad himself. He wasn't dressed in his usual strange clothes but black, slim, but not like skinny jeans with a couple silver chains, a dark yellow hoodie and black and red converse.

It was strange seeing him in something in other than his white and black outfit and pajamas, the only things he'd caught Gintoki in. For the first time after their first meeting, he _looked_ at Gintoki. 

He gulped. The sun broke through the clouds at that exact moment, and a small ray of light hit Gintoki's silver curls, causing them to glisten and shine in the sunlight. 

The girl Gintoki was sitting with ran her long, slender fingers through them, and Hijikata's fingers subconsciously twitched. A thought suddenly hit him, how did they feel? Were they soft and smooth like they looked? Would the curls wrap around his fingers? Would Gintoki like having his scalp massaged?

A moment after the thoughts came, Hijikata shook them away. No, he wasn't supposed to be having thoughts like that bout Gintoki, his lazy, permy and weird neighbour! He leaned a little closer and eavesdropped on their conversation to distract them.

"...swear if he tries to hurt you one more time, I won't let him go," Gintoki was saying. 

The girl huffed. "I can defend myself, thanks. And besides, you're overreacting."

Hijikata frowned. That voice was awfully familiar, and it wasn't as feminine as the body it came from. It couldn't be...?

" 'M not," Gintoki muttered. "You went crazy the last time I got stabbed, didn't you?"

Hijikata's eyes widened. 

"Yes, but that's a different story. But you always lose control when somebody tries coming after me. I can defend myself, there's no need for you to help." The other person (Hijikata wasn't sure if it even was a girl) said. 

"How so, Zura?" Yep, as Hijikata suspected. The 'girl' was Gintoki's pretty boy friend. "But that short bastard sent his pet to freaking cut off your hair. I don't care if he's blind, nobody can play with your hair but me," he said as he pouted childishly, tugging at the long locks. 

Hijikata thought about his long hair. Would Gintoki prefer that to his short hair? He shook away the thought. This wasn't about him.

Katsura sighed. "It's not Zura, it's Katsura. Anyways, I'm dealing with him. Apparently they are out of the country right now, so my guys are laying traps. We won't let them continue. I heard they have started dealing, too. I never suspected Takasugi to stoop that low for power."

Gintoki sighed. "He doesn't have morals, Zura. He just hates how things are corrupt right now and will do anything to destroy it. He's not above doing questionable things to gain that power, because he intends for their to be nothing left over when he's finished. Hmph. That bastard hasn't even sent me a housewarming gift yet. If he can send us new years cards with threats, he can send me a gift to congratulate me on buying a house. "

Hijikata didn't get what they were saying, but he was concerned. Dealing? It couldn't be that this Takasugi fellow was selling drugs? His thoughts flashed to the Kihetai, who recently started dealing according to their undercover agent, but he quickly shook the thought away. There was no way that Gintoki of all people was connected to somebody like that. This Takasugi was probable another college punk like Katsura who had took to dealing for extra cash. 

Katsura gave him a sad smile. "It continues to shock me how you put up with it all. I'd expect you to be up there beside him, after what you've gone through."

Gintoki gave a wistful look. "I'm not like him. I just want to protect the people who are important to me, my family and home. What happens to this country is none of my concern, and it won't be unless he becomes a threat to them."

Katsura gave him a proud smile. "Noble words coming from somebody like you."

The silver haired man snorted. "Don't make me into a hero, Zura. I'm _not_ a hero."

Hijikata frowned at how persistently denied being a hero and leaned closer, hoping for an explanation why.

"But you know you is? Gintaman is! In the recent chapters, he Pattsuan, and Gurako fought against the--"

Yep, that was enough. Hijikata sighed, sneaking away, mind reeling from Gintoki and Katsura's conversation. He had thought Gintoki to be a normal lazy guy, but there was something else to him and his friend. This Takasugi was either an emo, big mouthed punk with big, unattainable and unrealistic ambitions-- destroying the corruptness? yeah right--, either that or he was a serious threat. Hijikata suspected the former, but didn't dismiss the latter. 

And Katsura and Gintoki had both admitted to being stabbed, and implied that it wasn't just once either. What Katsura said about Gintoki at the end, Gintoki avidly denying he was a hero, Gintoki was a lot more mysterious than Hijikata had originally thought him to be.

But what bothered him the most, was Gintoki's relationship with Katsura. Gintoki had introduced him to a couple strange people, given him background stories, but he had never mentioned being gay or having a lover. He didn't know why it bothered him so much that Gintoki was dating somebody, but it did. And he didn't like it. 

And of course somebody as handsome as Gintoki was dating somebody as pretty and perfect as Katsura. Slim, lean and muscled, with pretty features, he'd turn heads of any guy, straight or gay.

Sighing, he ignored the faint pang of jealousy and disappointment and continued on his way to the station.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays!  
> I don't like the prompts for GinHiji week coming up, so I'd rather work on my own stories. 
> 
> Um, well school is a bitch, I'm almost failing math but that's because I've lost all hope/motivation to do better and sleep all class, but lets not talk about that depressing shit! 
> 
> So I figured Gintoki has some pretty messed up views on love and shit 
> 
> ALSO AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SHIPS SAITOU/KATSURA  
> It's like so cute in the anime, Katsura is like trying so hard to get shit done and Saitou is just like hey. I'm going to sleepzzzzzzzz  
> I was thinking of making them^^^^a pairing but idk. Would you prefer Katsura/Saitou or Katsura/Ikumatsu???
> 
>  
> 
> Also who liked the OkiKagu in this chapter i tried i really did but it was so hard like what is Sougo's character even
> 
>  
> 
> The Otae/Kyuubei, Otae/Kondou pairing is still up for question! I even got somebody saying Kyuubei/Kondou. So comment whichever you prefer!
> 
>  
> 
> So, because I reaaally like interacting with readers, I'll end this with a shit ton of questions for you to answer in the comments:  
> Ahhhh, did you like Otose?? do you think she's in character? i wanted to put Tama in but I'll save that for later-- who else loves Tama???? What did you think about Gintoki's messed up views on love? And katsura and saitou? And kagura and sougo? any requests? What were you expecting would happen? What do you think will happen next? And what did you think of Gintoki and Katsura's conversation? Do you prefer Ikumatsu/Katsura or Saitou/Katsura? And what do you think about the Jouishishi and Takasugi and the Kihetai and Harasume? 
> 
>  
> 
> Also, i have a major problem: I originally planned to have Gintoki wearing his usual white yukata, black pants and shirt outfit forever, but decided against it. Instead, I'm having him wear normal clothes, like 21st century clothes.  
> But I have no clue what to make him wear.  
> Like, I have no fashion sense. I have like 4 outfits that I wear in public and like 10 hoodies. I don't know shit about clothes. Colours? no i only wear black  
> So, comment what you'd like to see Gintoki wear? Jeans, shorts, jackets, shirts, colours, describe some outfits for Gintoki to wear, please or he'll end up in ugly sweaters forever

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading!  
> Please comment, what you liked, disliked, requests, I'll take them all.   
> Hope you enjoyed it :)


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